Jermell Charlo didn’t see anything special.
Moments after viciously beating Tony Harrison via ninth-round TKO Saturday night to improve to 22-0, Tim Tszyu declared “I’ve beat the man who beat the man.”
Well, Charlo now looms next for Tszyu.
And the champ wasn’t overly impressed with what he saw.
Charlo (35-1), who is the undisputed junior middleweight champion with all four belts, was set to make his first undisputed title defense versus Tszyu in January, but was forced to withdraw after breaking his hand in training.
The 28-year-old Tszyu instead turned to Harrison, who is the only fighter to defeat Charlo (although Charlo avenged his loss in a rematch one year later), with the winner earning a shot at the titles.
Charlo was left to watch the one-sided slugfest as a spectator, which he did as a guest analyst on Showtime’s broadcast team during the bout, waiting to find out who will next be across from him in the ring.
“He doesn’t really show a lot of athleticism to me,” the 32-year-old Charlo told The Post from CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan after the bout. “When you’ve got skills, and you’ve got styles and you’ve got power all together, you get four belts. He’s going to be a tough fight because he’s coming forward, but I think he’s perfect for my style.”
“I know he can’t take my punch, because I just know my punch is different. He’s going to do the same thing. He’s not going to change much.”
Tszyu, a Sydney, Australia native fighting in his hometown against Harrison, wasted no time calling out Charlo after his win, promising him that he’ll come to America and take Charlo’s titles from him.
Having to twice earn the opportunity due to Charlo’s injury, Tszyu has long been waiting for this exact matchup, and chance for history.
Since January, Charlo has been waiting for Tszyu as well.
The bout is expected to take place this summer.
“It just made me want to fight, just get this over with, shut him up,” Charlo said. “I’ve shut a lot of them up, it’s just another one.”
Charlo is currently one of only three undisputed champions across all of boxing (Canelo Alvarez at super middleweight and Devin Haney at lightweight are the other two) and one of just nine male undisputed champions ever since the sport entered the four-belt era.
Yet, even with a near flawless record and historic accolades, he still finds himself missing out on the top of boxing’s hierarchy.
On most pound-for-pound lists, Charlo is near the bottom of the top-10, or left off the list completely.
What gives?
“I just think I have a twin brother [WBC middleweight champion Jermall]. And because I have a twin, that already gets enough attention,” Charlo said. “And then they compare us a lot, so it just makes it harder for someone to actually really, really, look at my weight division and my class.”
“I’ve been here for a long time, 10-plus years in this division, just been banging everybody, knocking everybody out. Still don’t get the love and respect. I’m no longer caring about it, I just wanna be great, make millions of dollars, and have fun.”
Tszyu, the son of the legendary Kostya, has been one of boxing’s fastest-rising prospects and has hardly blinked en route to Charlo.
All Charlo sees, however, is an opponent to bring him what he’s long deserved.
“I ain’t never really got the respect, so I stopped caring about the respect that they give me,” Charlo said. “As long as I know I am completing all the tasks that I’m supposed to do in my career, I try my best not to stay so focused on who is on the pound-for pound, or who’s not on the pound-for-pound. Keep focus, I just want to be able to feed my family and be healthy when I get older.”
“Hopefully I can do more and push myself. Sometimes I go back and look at some of my fights, and I want to do better. I want to do more, so this gives me a chance to make them give me my respect. I don’t care anymore about all that, I’m just going to be the same person that I am, and mature a little bit more, and just be a beast.”
