By: Hans Themistode
Jermall Charlo is currently watching the days slowly go by. This coming weekend, the WBC middleweight champion will put his belt and undefeated record on the line when he takes on the hard-hitting Juan Macias Montiel. The two are scheduled to face off in Charlo’s hometown of Houston Texas, at the Toyota Center.
Despite Charlo being the heavy favorite, Montiel (22-4-2, 22 KOs) has talked a big game. With every single one of his wins coming via stoppage, the Mexican native plans on making Charlo another knockout victim. Regardless of his brazen trash talk, Charlo can’t help but smile and nod when he discusses the verbal threats by his upcoming opponent.
From the moment the opening bell rings, Charlo (31-0, 22 KOs) doesn’t want to box and move. With all the nonstop knockout talk, Charlo wants Montiel to stand and bang in the middle of the ring with him.
“Montiel can’t make any mistakes,” said Charlo during an interview on The Jake Asman Show on SportsMap Radio. “I have just as many knockouts as him and I’ve knocked out way stiffer competition than he has. He’s a confident kid and I understand why, he’s fighting for my belt. Followers get your popcorn before the fight, he coming to bang and I want to see how long he stays in the blender.”
Charlo, 31, says that he is fully focused on the task at hand. Still, with that said, a matchup against Montiel didn’t exactly excite the fight fans when it was first announced. With the middleweight division flooded with a plethora of great fighters, many were expecting a much more established name for Charlo’s first fight of the 2021 calendar.
Before it’s all said and done, the Houstonian wants to leave an indelible mark in middleweight history. That, in turn, would mean a matchup against some, if not all, of the current belt holders in his division, something Charlo is desperately hoping happens next.
“I want to stop this guy,” continued Charlo. “I want to show y’all that Jermall Charlo is for real and we need to get Golovkin, Canelo and Andrade in the ring.”
Amongst those previously mentioned names, Golovkin is possibly the one fighter Charlo has chased longer than the others. While fans are crossing their fingers and hoping they face off in the near future, Charlo revealed that his team attempted to make their showdown a reality.
“We reached out to him. Hopefully, the fight happens one day.”