Ak and Barak both believe that Jermell Charlo will emerge as the undisputed light middleweight champion after his fight with Brian Castano on Saturday.
Discussing the upcoming bout on the DAZN Boxing Show, Barak Bess explained why he favored Charlo.
“The pressure is always on the person who's expected to win,” he said.
“And Jermell Charlo is expected to win. Even though, if you dig deep into Brian Castano, he beat Errol Spence in the amateurs. He showed himself against [Patrick] Teixeira. I mean, he showed himself against [Erislandy] Lara. You know, he showed that he's a pressure fighter, but he's also a skillful, right-handed fighter, but I saw him switch to southpaw a couple of times.
“He has the stamina, he has the conditioning. He has the chin. But since Derrick James has been working with Jermell Charlo he's a different guy. He used to be the boxer and Jermall [Charlo] was the power puncher. Now they're both power punches. And his athleticism can keep him from long range, but he can also mix it up, and I always tend to give the edge to the guy who can show adjustments during the fight, and has the pop that Jermell Charlo has.”
Akin Reyes agreed with his colleague, saying the pressure is on Charlo to perform, but he will rise to the occasion.
“Jermell Charlo does have all the pressure on him, which I agree with. Castano has it all to gain,” he explained.
“But when there's less pressure on you, you kind of go into this fight a little weightless, like you're not the guy that has to please everybody.
“You have to outdo your brother to some degree. There's a friendly competition. I don't mean always friendly.
“Those brothers. They're twins. They love each other. Believe you me, Jermell wants to outdo Jermall. So he wants to be undisputed at junior middleweight, and I'm pretty sure he wants to stop Castano.
“So there's pressure, but there's a lot to gain for him as well. I think that this is a good matchup. I love the fact that we're seeing the undisputed showdown at 154 so Jermell Charlo is going out there to accomplish something big.
“I think he's gonna do it in dramatic fashion. No disrespect to Castano, and all, he's going to execute.”