Jermall Charlo can feel his time in boxing arriving quickly — and he made a loud introduction to anyone with a question — after he annihilated Cornelius K9 Bundrage in less than four rounds, to claim the IBF junior middleweight championship of the world.
Crafty up and comer Wilky Campfort (21-1, 12 KOs) will try to avoid the same fate when he goes 1-on-1 with the undefeated Charlo (22-0, 17 KOs) on November 28 at The Bomb Factory in Dallas. It will be Charlo’s first defense of the 154-pound championship he won with that spectacular third-round TKO of Bundrage on September 12.
The scheduled 12-round bout headlines a Premier Boxing Champions card (NBC, 3 p.m. ET/noon PT) that will also feature undefeated 147-pound contender, friend and Dallas native Errol Spence Jr. (18-0, 15 KOs) against Alejandro Barrera (28-2, 18 KOs) in another 12-rounder.
Jermall Charlo sat down with BSO to discuss his upbringing in the sport, his rise, his future and Cotto-Canelo!
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BSO: You’re ten weeks removed from winning your first world title and you hopped right back in the gym. Why? And can you explain to our readers how good you feel?
JC: I haven’t stepped out of the gym since I won the title. You get the title, you defend it. That’s the motto. I know Campfort is hungry and at the top of his game, but I’ve been training just as hard, if not harder, to defend my title. That’s just how we do, I love to work and train, and if it was up to me, I’d fight a lot more often.
It took everything I have to get here, and it’s going to take everything I have to remain here. I just wanted to keep the ball rolling, and feeling strong.
BSO: How did you and your twin brother (Jermell) get into the sport of boxing?
JC: Just following our dad, a former boxer, into the gym 10 years ago never looking back. He was a trainer when we were coming up, so we grew up in the gym and never left. We were young kids you know, just always in the gym, grinding.
BSO: Will this be your final fight at 154 (Jr. Middleweight.)?
JC: Time will tell you know, I’m not going to say that this is my final fight at 154, but I want to take things as they go and see how I feel.
We’ll take a look at the muscle, and see how my body responds, because it’s just filling out.
BSO: What are you expecting from Willie Campfort? The 31-year-old Campfort has stopped his last two opponents, three of his last four and seven of his last 10.
JC: A tough hard fight. I”m not overlooking him, and obviously he got here for a reason. He’s looking to win a world title, so I expect him to come in and give a good performance, to fight.
BSO: You totally smoked K9 Bundrage and made it look easy. Can you explain how you felt entering the ring, and how it became so easy?
JC: I mean it wasn’t easy, but we came up with a great game plan in camp, we were sharp, aggressive and stuck to the plan. We stayed focused and attacked his weaknesses.
BSO: With you being a Texas native, how does it feel to headline a card with Errol Spence Jr.?
JC: We told each other sitting in bed one day that we’d both become world champions. I have a brother, but we’re just like brothers, really good friends. We grew up together in the amateurs. We always knew about Errol Spence. We used to always say that he’s our other brother in the sport.
BSO: It’s a fight off in the distance for now, but their could be a future matchup with Miguel Cotto or Canelo Alvarez. Who do you like Saturday night, and why?
JC: I think Canelo will be too much for Cotto early on. If Cotto can survive, he’s savvy enough to take Canelo’s best shot, and then dominate the later rounds. So I’m not sure of a winner, but I don’t think the fight makes it into the later rounds.
