By Eóin Kennedy
Despite getting all action fights from boxing’s ruler and conqueror of the super-welterweight division, Jermell Charlo, in recent years, it sometimes felt it was a sleepy weight class. Charlo always provided entertainment, that’s for sure, whether it was his multi-fight feuds with Tony Harrison and Brian Castano or his stand-alone victories over Erikson Lubin and Gabe Rosado, the Texan fighter was always good value for money. Since jumping up two weight classes last year to take on Canelo Alvarez at super-middleweight, it’s been unclear as to what Charlo’s future plans are, but it would make sense to return to the 154-pound weight class.
Super-welterweight has had lots of really good fighters pass through it’s rankings in the last ten years and there was never a dearth of really competitive fights, but boxing is a business even more than it is a sport and despite the talent at hand, not many pay-per-view stars were populating those same rankings. Charlo has been ‘the man’ in that division for a while but he needs a worthy dance partner to demand pay-per-view status for his fights. The build up to his two fights with Harrison provided some of the funniest press conferences in recent boxing history and are still a go-to for light, boxing related YouTube comic relief. But even as hilarious as Charlo and Harrison were as foils for one another, those fights still didn’t cross over into the mainstream.
The lack of recognizable stars to generate money with at super-welterweight is the exact reason that Charlo would jump up to super-middleweight and challenge boxing’s biggest star, Canelo. Challenge may be too kind a word to describe what Charlo actually did against Canelo that night, but he got paid either way which is the point. But Charlo won’t need to go fight bigger men to try and earn generational wealth anymore, suddenly a gaggle of golden geese have just landed on his old stomping ground. Close friend and former gym-mate, Errol Spence, has finally outgrown welterweight and his planning his debut at 154 pounds. It’s unlikely that Spence and Charlo would ever fight given their friendship, regardless of whether they train in different gyms, but having one of boxing’s biggest stars in your weight class is never bad for general buzz.
It’s not only friends of Charlo that have come to see what rewards are on offer at super-welterweight, there’s plenty of foes sniffing around too. Consensus pound-for-pound king, Terence Crawford, has also ditched the lower division, deeming that destroying Spence and becoming undisputed champion in the process was a perfect way to sign off at welterweight. Who could disagree. Crawford has wasted no time getting settled in and took on a tough fight in his first contest at 154 against Israil Madrimov. Crawford got the win on points making him mandatory challenger to Sebastain Fundora’s WBO world title. Fundora himself has emerged as a big name in the sport since his win over Tim Tszyu. Fundora’s height and body frame is completely unorthodox for this weight class so other than being a likeable champion, he brings an element of novelty which fans love and he now is another lucrative commodity within boxing. Tszyu, despite losing his world titles to Fundora, is also a fighter with an enormous fanbase and he brings another market into play being an Australian boxer. Australia has experienced a bit of a boxing boom in recent years with George Kambosos, Jeff Horn, the Moloney brothers and other’s taking huge fights down under. When you add Vergil Ortiz Jr and Xander Zayas to the list of names we’ve already discussed, it may be fair to suggest that all of a sudden, super-welterweight could be boxing’s new ‘in Vogue’ division.
