Charlos hoping for a twin thrilling in doubleheader
Jermell and Jermall Charlo are both world champions. They’ve both headlined big boxing cards inthe middleof packed arenas. They’re a pair of boxing’s most entertaining — in the ring and behind a microphone — fighters, yet they’ve never headlined their own pay-perview.
That changes Saturday night when the twins from Alief top the marquee of a unique boxing double header on pay-per-view at Connecticut’ s Mohegan Sun Arena.
The card is actually two pay-per-views in one with a couple under card fights kicking off the night before Jermall defends his World Boxing Council middleweight belt against Sergiy Derevyanchenko. After a 30- minute inter mission, there will be two more undercard fights before Jermell steps to the ring in a 154-pound title unification fight against World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation champion Jeison Rosario.
“This is something we’ve always been waiting for. Now is the time. This is major,” said Jermell, who holds the WBC’s super welterweight belt. “This is the Super Bowl for us. This is the national championship. This is everything.”
It’s a big night for the twins in ways they can’t even control. Not only do they need towin, they need to do so impressively so they can prove they belong at the top of a pay-per-view, and their promoters need to have convinced enough boxing fans to shell out $74.99 so no one will hesitate to put the Charlos in another big spot.
“People will say they can’t wait to see the Charlos fight again after Saturday, that’s going to be themain theme,” Jermell said. “We come to fight. We prepared all our lives for this and nowit’s our time.”
Jermall (30-0, 22 knockouts) appears to have the tougher task in front of him, with oddsmakers listing him as only a slight favorite over Derevyanchenko (13-2, 10 KOs), whose two defeats were narrow decisions against world champions GennadiyGolovkin and Daniel Jacobs.
“Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs were tough fights, they were both close fights and I think those experiences definitely helped me,” the 34year-old Ukrainian said. “I’ll show it in the ring on Saturday.”
For his part, the 30-yearold Jermall and his perfect record don’t want to hear about tough-luck losses.
“He’s a tough fighter, but he still lost twice though, right?,” Jermall said.
The Charlo brothers are excitable and sometimes they seem to invent sleights to give themselves a little extra juice during training.
For this fight, Jermall has convinced himself that all the talk about Derevyanchenko’s tough lossesmeans somehow the challenger is looking ahead to bigger fights down the road.
“Derevyanchenko is looking past me; his trainer and his whole camp, they’re all looking past me,” Jermall said. “They’re going to find out what they’re in for on Saturday.”
Jermell (33-1, 17 KOs) is in almost the opposite position. He’s facing a fellow champion, but one who shocked a lot of people when he dethroned Julian Williams (20-1-1, 14 KOs) with a knockout in January. Rosario will enter the ring as a 3-to-1 underdog.
“People are going to see on Saturday that it was no fluke that I beat Julian Williams the way that I did,” the 25-year-old Dominican said.
Jermell fully expects to close the Charlos’ big show— boxing’s first pay-per-view since the pandemic — with him and his brother returning to Houston with all the belt sand more fans willing to lay down more money to watch them fight next time.
“We’re going to put on a show,” Jermell said. “Knowing my brother is also fighting gives me more energy. Fight night is when you see all our excitement and all our hard work pouring out. This is huge for us.”