Bernard Hopkins Wants To See Canelo Alvarez Fight Jermall Charlo
Bernard Hopkins believes Canelo Alvarez vs. Jermall Charlo is the fight to make.
Speaking to Fight Hype in a recent interview (via Bad Left Hook), Hopkins revealed it was a fight he wanted even before Alvarez split with Golden Boy Promotions.
“There’s one fight I want to see him fight…Jermall Charlo,” Hopkins said. “Let me tell you, nothing else matters to me right now. I wanted that fight before the Golden Boy split, I want that fight now. I want that fight in the next year-and-a-half or earlier. The reason I say year-and-a-half is not because neither guy isn’t ready, fix the politics first. See the politics gotta get on the same page first and then the fight happens.
“So hopefully the politics don’t take too long between both sides and we can see one of those throwback Roberto Duran and [Sugar Ray Leonard].”
As for who comes out on top, Hopkins is giving a slight edge to Alvarez. However, a big reason he wants the fight is because he believes Charlo — the reigning WBC middleweight champion — has a genuine chance of coming out with the win.
“When you going up against the young whippersnapper in a respectful way, that can fight his ass off in many ways, and hungry, on paper you gotta give this fight as a close, razor-edge thin (advantage) to Canelo on paper,” Hopkins explained. “But there’s always that suspicions of oddmakers and reporters and experts looking at Jermall Charlo’s learning process…his confidence, you’ve seen him grow, I’ve seen him grow.
“There’s mental and there’s physical, and that’s why Jermall Charlo and Canelo Alvarez is so even up to a point. The experience has to go to Canelo, the achievements up to now has to go to Canelo. You can’t even dispute that — it is what it is.”
For now, it appears Alvarez is more interested in unifying the super-middleweight division.
The Mexican most recently outclassed Callum Smith over 12 rounds to become the WBA and WBC super-middleweight champion and has goals to unify the weight class in 2021.
“I’ve worked hard for this and it’s a great situation to be in,” Alvarez said. “It’s a pretty simple plan for 2021, fight for all of the belts at 168 and fight three times, maybe four. We’ll see.
“I want to take all of the titles (at 168). My goal is to fight anyone at 168 if they have a title, that’s who I’m going to go after. The goal is February, May and September. That’s our goal for 2021.”
Perhaps once Alvarez reaches his goal, a fight with Charlo can be made.
Do you want to see Alvarez vs. Charlo? Who wins?
