Notebook: Charlo downplays speculation of fight with Canelo
Curiel-Nontshinga II: repeat or revenge?; Boxing Social appearance; welterweight title eliminator purse bid; Quick hits; Show and tell
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While much of the boxing world has speculated in recent weeks that a fight between undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez and Jermall Charlo is all but a done deal for May 4 in Las Vegas that apparently is news to Charlo.
In a video posted to his social media on Wednesday, the WBC middleweight titleholder made it clear he has not been thinking about boxing.
Instead, Charlo, who was apparently on a boat, said he was on a family vacation in Turks and Caicos, where he and his wife toasted with cups rum punch with the ocean in the background and the sun shining. The video was apparently recorded on Wednesday as Charlo and his wife wished each other happy Valentine’s Day.
“I haven’t even talked to (Premier Boxing Champions boss) Al Haymon since I last fought,” Charlo said. “So everyone that keeps talking like, ‘Oh, you about to fight Canelo,’ and this and that, ain’t no confirmation. I’m in an island somewhere stupid ass. Chill out.
“Until it’s official, it’s official. I offered. I offered. I said I would do whatever I gotta do, you know what I’m saying? We was on the jet skis. … We’re doing our thing.”
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Charlo (33-0, 22 KOs), 33, of Houston, returned from a 29-month layoff due to injury, legal and personal problems, including what he said were mental health issues, on Nov. 25 to win a one-sided 10-round decision over Jose Benavidez Jr. in a super middleweight bout on the David Benavidez-Demetrius Andrade Showtime PPV undercard at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Charlo last defended the middleweight title in June 2021 and was supposed to challenge Alvarez last Sept. 30, but when he said he would not be able to be ready in time, Alvarez instead faced twin bother and undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo. Alvarez wiped him out, scoring a knockdown and cruising to a near shutout decision.
All along there has been chatter that Alvarez would next face Jermall even though there is zero public demand for the bout, especially after the lackluster performance of his brother against Alvarez, Jermall’s lack of activity and no notable win in years — not to mention that Alvarez has various other opponents he could pursue with much greater fan appeal that Charlo, including WBC interim super middleweight titlist Benavidez, who has been chasing Alvarez; Mexican contender Jaime Munguia; and pound-for-pound king and unified welterweight champion Terence Crawford.
Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KOs), 33, of Mexico, stoked more speculation about a possible Charlo fight on Tuesday when he sat down with TV Azteca, his Mexican broadcaster, for an interview. While Alvarez reiterated what he has said for months, that he will be back in action on May 4 — Cinco de Mayo weekend, one of his usual fight dates — he did not reveal his opponent but did say that he would fight an American and not a Mexican, which would rule out Munguia.
That said, sources told Fight Freaks Unite that there have been preliminary discussions between Alvarez’s team and Munguia’s for a possible fight, although that could be for September, when Alvarez plans to have his second fight of the year and the third and final bout of the three-fight deal he made with PBC that commenced with the Jermell Charlo bout.
Alvarez’s May 4 fight is due to headline a PBC pay-per-view on new PBC partner Amazon Prime Video.
Curiel-Nontshinga rematch
Three months after unheralded Adrian Curiel scored a devastating second-round upset knockout of Sivenathi Nontshinga to seize the IBF junior flyweight title in a shocker, they will meet in a rematch on Friday (DAZN, 8 p.m. ET) at the Auditorium Guelaguetza in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Nontshinga (12-1, 9 KOs), 25, of South Africa, who won a split decision against Hector Flores to claim the vacant 108-pound title in the 2022 Fight Freaks Unite fight of the year on Flores’ turf in Mexico, faced Curiel in his second defense on Nov. 4 in Monte Carlo, Monaco, and got badly knocked out by a massive overhand right he never saw coming.
Besides the fact that Curiel (24-4-1, 5 KOs), 25, of Mexico, was an unknown he came into the fight only four knockouts.
“The first time in Monaco, Adrian surprised a lot of people,” Matchroom Boxing promoter Frank Smith said at Wednesday’s news conference. “I don’t think people thought he had the power to do what he did, so Sive is here to change that story. I was in Mexico when Sive won the title and it’s probably the best fight I’ve ever seen in my life, a back-and-forth 12 rounds. If Sive can recreate that night, and Adrian can do what he did in Monaco, we’re in for something special.”
Nontshinga said he shook off the loss and is ready to reclaim the title.
“My title looks good on him,” he said at the fight-week news conference on Wednesday. “It feels great to be here. It’s been a long time coming, I’ve been working so hard, and I will grab this opportunity with both hands.
“I’ve trained so hard. It’s not the first time I’ve prepared for a world title fight. I’ve been a champion before, and I promise everybody that once again I will prevail. I believe falling down is part of life, but getting back up is living, so once again, I will become a champion.”
Curiel is aiming to repeat his stunner.
“We have trained as champions, but we will go into the fight with a challenger mentality,” Curiel said. “It’s great to defend my belt on home soil. It was not a lucky shot. I’ve been watching interviews that he’s been giving, and he says that I’m not a big puncher and I’m an easy fighter. But he’ll see on Friday that as we say here, people need to back up what they say. So, we’ll see on Friday if that’s true.”
In the 10-round junior lightweight co-feature, former WBA featherweight titlist Mauricio Lara will fight Mexican countryman Daniel Lugo in a 10-rounder.
Lara (26-3-1, 19 KOs), 25, will be fighting for the first time since he missed weight and was stripped of the title the day before Leigh Wood knocked him down in the second round and won a lopsided decision in their rematch in May in Manchester, England. Lugo (27-2, 18 KOs), 29, has won three fights in a row, all in 2023, since taking off all of 2022 off.
“I just took some time out to analyze what was going on in terms of my boxing, and now I am back,” Lara said. “I take it all calmly.”
Boxing Social appearance
I joined my friend Michelle Joy Phelps from Boxing Social to discuss the prospects of a Canelo Alvarez-Jermall Charlo undisputed super middleweight title fight on May 4 and the deal being agreed to for the rematch between Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall for April 27. Watch the video here:
Quick hits
Weights from Commerce, California, for Golden Boy’s “Fight Night” card Thursday on DAZN (9 p.m. ET): Joseph Diaz Jr. 137.6 pounds, Jesus Perez 138.2; Eric Tudor 153.2, Luis Ramos 153.8; Jorge Chavez 123.6, Diuhl Olguin 124; Joshua Garcia 131.2, Eric Lozada 120.8; Sasha Tudor 159, Josias Gonzalez 153.8. The 10-round flyweight co-feature between Ricardo Sandoval and Jayson Mama was canceled after they both made weight because Mama returned a positive test for hepatitis C, a source with knowledge of the result told Fight Freaks Unite.
An IBF purse bid for a final eliminator between Karen Chukhadzhian and Harry Scarff to determine its mandatory welterweight challenger is scheduled for Thursday at 12 p.m. ET at its offices in Springfield, New Jersey, and via video conference. The winner would become mandatory for titlist Jaron “Boots” Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs), who shut out Ukraine’s Chukhadzhian (23-2, 13 KOs), 27, to win the vacant IBF interim title in January 2023 before being elevated to full titleholder last fall when undisputed champion Terence Crawford declined to face him in a mandatory bout. Chukhadzhian has won two fights since the loss. Scarff (13-2, 3 KOs), 30, of England, won the British and Commonwealth titles by unanimous decision from Ekow Essuman in November.
Boxxer announced two more bouts for the undercard of the Fabio Wardley-Frazer Clarke heavyweight fight on March 31 (Peacock in U.S., Sky Sports in U.K.) at The O2 in London. All-out brawler “The Savage” Alen Babic will face Steve Robinson (6-2, 4 KOs), 33, of England, in a heavyweight fight and super middleweight Callum Simpson (13-0, 9 KOs), 27, of England, will face an opponent to be named. Babic (11-1, 10 KOs), 33, of Croatia, returns from an 11-month layoff following a first-round knockout loss to Lukasz Rozanski for the vacant WBC bridgerweight title last April.
With Matchroom Boxing soon to announce the rematch between former undisputed junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall for April 27 in Leeds, England, the company told Fight Freaks Unite that the show it already has announced for that date headlined by the rematch between junior featherweight Ja’Rico O’Quinn and Peter McGrail in Liverpool, England, will be merged and O’Quinn-McGrail II will shift to the undercard in Leeds.
Show and tell
When Evander Holyfield outlasted fellow Hall of Famer Dwight Muhammad Qawi to win a searing 15-round battle in their first fight he won the WBA cruiserweight title (then called “junior heavyweight” by the organization). It was the first of Holyfield’s world titles and after a nontitle bout five months later, he made his first defense against 1984 U.S. Olympic teammate Henry Tillman, who won gold in Los Angeles and was 14-1 as a pro when they met on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” on a winter afternoon in Reno, Nevada.
Holyfield dominated, dropping the game Tillman in the second round and three more times in the seventh round, forcing referee Carlos Padilla to wave off the fight as the three-knockdown rule was being utilized. Holyfield would eventually unify the three major titles of the era to become the first undisputed cruiserweight champion and go on to do the same at heavyweight, where he became a legend. But world title defense No. 1 against Tillman took place on Feb. 14, 1987 — 37 years ago on Wednesday. Here is a scarce four-page heavy stock program with very cool artwork from the fight in my collection.
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Photos: Charlo: Amanda Westcott/Showtime; Curiel-Nontshinga: Melina Pizano/Matchroom Boxing; Diaz-Perez: Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy
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I just watched the Holyfield-Qawi fight after Teddy Atlas compared Azeez to Qawi on his podcast. I gotta say, I see the similarities, but Qawi with the shrug and the smile a couple times added some real charm!