Jermall Charlo still hopes to face Canelo Alvarez before hanging up the gloves, but his sporadic appearances in the ring make that goal tough to sell. Facing Koen Mazoudier gets him moving again, yet it does nothing to prove he belongs among the elite at 168 pounds.

“I do want to fight Canelo before it’s all said and done, but I’m not going to be a Canelo chaser. Who knows, man,” Charlo told Fight Hub TV.

Now 36, Jermall is running out of road. Having laced up the gloves just three times since 2021, he steps into the ring on October 17 following a 17-month layoff after his victory over Thomas LaManna.

That inactivity remains the real hurdle. Staging a single return only to vanish for months stalls any momentum and keeps everyone wondering what he has left. Past belts at junior middleweight and middleweight still carry name recognition, yet they prove nothing about his standing as a super middleweight today.

Mazoudier offers a tuneup, but brushing aside an unheralded opponent will not convince the public that a Canelo meeting makes sense. Jermall needs a genuine test against a proven contender at 168, paired with consistent ring time to show he is truly back.

Back in 2023, the chance to fight Canelo shifted to his twin, Jermell, who dropped a wide decision. Three years down the line, Jermall remains focused on that matchup without collecting the meaningful wins needed to demand it.

Relying on Canelo to be there later is a massive gamble. The Mexican star has Christian Mbilli in front of him, a result capable of reshaping the landscape at 168 pounds overnight. Charlo simply cannot build a career timeline around a champion who holds all the cards.

Claiming he refuses to chase the Mexican superstar sounds fine in soundbites, but backing it up requires targeting opponents who force the issue. If Jermall gets past Mazoudier, he must jump straight into a top-tier super middleweight clash instead of retreating into another extended layoff.

Targeting Osleys Iglesias would force the division to pay attention. Iglesias represents everything the marquee names at 168 have spent the past two years ducking: a southpaw Cuban puncher with devastating power, sharp fundamentals, and zero commercial incentive for anyone looking for an easy night.

If Charlo wants to shed the perception that he is merely coasting on his past name value while angling for a Canelo lottery ticket, Iglesias is the exact litmus test to take. Tearing the IBF belt away from a boogeyman nobody wants to touch would do more for Jermall in one night than three years of passive posturing ever could. It strips away any excuse for Canelo to look past him.

Of course, the entire dynamic hinges on what happens on October 31st. Mbilli brings a relentless pace that could easily batter the remaining tread off Canelo’s tires. If Mbilli pulls off the upset or roughs Canelo up enough to alter his twilight plans, chasing Canelo becomes completely pointless anyway. By targeting Iglesias instead, Charlo would establish real championship leverage at 168 on his own terms, regardless of whose hand gets raised at the end of October.

Tyson Fury has shared his thoughts on whether or not David Benavidez can become a formidable heavyweight operator.

The 29-year-old has already expressed his interest in moving up in weight but, first, he is attempting to cement himself as a dominant world champion at 200lbs.

In order to do so, Benavidez must defeat Jai Opetaia – the other consensus top-two cruiserweight – who he is targeting for a Cinco de Mayo showdown in 2027.

Before that, though, the three-division world champion is expected to face Michal Cieslak in December, bidding to add the WBC title to his collection of WBO and WBA cruiserweight belts.

He claimed those two straps against Gilberto Ramirez, who he dethroned with a sixth-round stoppage while making his 200lb debut in May.

As a result, many feel that ‘The Mexican Monster’ has the ability to compete at heavyweight, where he was linked to an unexpected opportunity after it seemed Fury’s clash with Anthony Joshua was close to being scuppered.

Instead, it was announced that the two Brits will collide on December 11, but ‘The Gypsy King’ nonetheless told FuriociTV that Benavidez would be a much tougher opponent than Joshua.

“What a fight that [Fury-Benavidez] would be. The only thing is that, with David Benavidez, he’s about a four to five times harder fight than Joshua.

“I’ll take it because that’s what I do – there’s not a man on this earth that I won’t fight. But never think that Joshua’s a tougher fight than David Benavidez. He stops Joshua in about three rounds.”

While he was briefly linked to a Fury clash, Benavidez’s father and trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr, has also expressed an interest in his son fighting Andy Ruiz Jr.

Josh Taylor doubts Ben Whittaker has the dog in him to back up his flashy skill set after watching the showboating light heavyweight scramble to survive a brutal late rally from Conor Wallace. The former undisputed champion spotted a fatal flaw that will wreck Whittaker once the competition stiffens.

“He doesn’t seem to have the inner heart and grit in him. Unbelievably talented but just can’t seem to put it all together and seems like he has a bit of quit in him,” Taylor posted on X. “That won’t fair well when the progresses through the levels, we’ve seen him quit before already.”

Taylor was right on the money. Wallace dragged Whittaker into the trenches and exposed him as an empty frontrunner over the final three rounds. Winning a tainted decision does nothing to erase the visual of Whittaker panicking, desperate to hold, and falling apart mentally the second the tide turned.

The collapse mirrored his Olympic final against Cuba’s Arlen Lopez. Whittaker came unglued under pressure in Tokyo, looking like pure jelly once the flashy tricks stopped working, and the exact same meltdown happened against Wallace. His speed vanishes into thin air when an opponent refuses to play the role of a willing victim.

At 29 years old, Whittaker should not be regressing into survival mode. Protected matchmaking built him up for social media highlight reels against overmatched opposition, shielding him from learning how to take a punch or dig deep.

His chaotic brawl with Liam Cameron tipped off everyone that sustained pressure breaks his spirit. Wallace confirmed it by making him look completely helpless in the championship rounds. Whittaker thrives on looking arrogant against punching bags, but when someone brings real fire, he looks lost.

Relying on desperate clinches and survival tactics against Conor Wallace shows how far he is from elite level. Dmitry Bivol would dismantle this version of Whittaker in cold blood, punishing the showboating and turning those mental lapses into a short night.