Jermall Charlo (27-0, 21 KOs) is one-half of the most recent sibling duos to take the boxing world by storm.
The undefeated 28-year-old now campaigning at 160 pounds, made boxing history with brother Jermell by becoming the first identical twins to hold world titles simultaneously at junior middleweight.
Jermall relinquished his junior middleweight title to move up to middleweight in 2017, where he has been impressive thus far quickly working his way to become one of unified champion Gennady Golovkin’s mandatory challengers.
Familial Beginnings
The Charlo brothers have always been compared to one another and competed in various sports while growing up in Houston. At age 8, their father, Kevin, a former amateur boxer to help instill discipline, introduced them both to boxing. The rest is history.
Jermall crossed paths with fellow boxing star Errol Spence Jr. while the two competed as amateurs in the qualifying tournament for the 2008 Beijing Games and they have remained close friends ever since.
Unfortunately, Jermall’s dreams of Olympic gold disappeared when he injured his toe thus ending his amateur career with a very respectable 65-6 record.
Rise to Prominence
Jermall followed brother Jermell to the professional ranks making his debut on September 12, 2008, with a second-round TKO over Cimarron Davis near his hometown.
After going largely unnoticed whilst compiling a record of 12-0 with eight Knockouts, Charlo finally got his opportunity against the more experienced Orlando Lora on the Austin Trout – Saul “Canelo” Alvarez pay-per-view undercard in 2013.
Jermall shined in controlling the action with his superior physicality and forced a fifth-round stoppage.
The knockouts kept coming, which included a third round trouncing of Italian veteran Lenny Bottai in Las Vegas, to mark his 14th straight stoppage win. That streak finally ended against Michael Finney who extended Charlo over all ten rounds losing by unanimous decision to the hot prospect. By then, however, Jermall had earned his first title shot against champion Cornelius Bundrage.
The Bundrage fight turned out to be a complete mismatch. The more skilled and much sharper Charlo recorded four-knockdowns en-route to a third-round TKO to claim the 154-pound title.
He would make three successful defenses the most notable being a hard fought twelve round unanimous decision over former champion Austin Trout. The fight was much closer than the scorecards indicated though with neither man able to take full control of the fight.
Move to 160 Pounds
Jermall, who had long struggled to make weight, soon vacated the title to move up to 160 pounds as previously mentioned.
“I’ve been thinking about moving to 160 pounds for a while now,” Charlo said. “It was a struggle for me to make the weight for the last title fight. Once I captured the title, I defended it immediately, because I wasn’t sure how long I could hold the weight. I held it an extra year to fight Austin Trout and Julian Williams.
Charlo quickly made his presence known with a sensational fourth-round TKO over Argentina’s Jorge Sebastian Heiland, who was stopped for the first time in his career. He then flattened Hugo Centeno with a vicious combination punctuated by a left hook that sent the Californian beneath the ropes and partially out of the ring as referee Steve Willis counted him out.
Charlo will likely have a long wait before landing his coveted crack at Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) if the fight happens at all. GGG will face Canelo Alvarez in their previously cancelled but still highly anticipated rematch now set for September 15.
