After the fights: Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo, Josh Taylor and the state of boxing

Numerous boxing title bouts took place on Saturday, Sept. 26. Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo, and Josh Taylor defended their titles and impacted boxing. 

Slowly, sports are coming back into the fold during the complexities of the pandemic. Boxing had its first high-scale pay-per-view contest featuring brothers Jermall Charlo and Jermell Charlo. Across the pond, Josh Taylor swiftly defended his titles, but each bout reflected boxing differently.

Some complained about the $74.99 price tag of the Charlo brothers doubleheader, but without a live gate, that’s what fans should expect to pay to see a boxing card loaded with entertaining title fights that.

Jermall and Jermell have all the makings of future stars. They’re good-looking and possess an abundance of talent. They took a step further in establishing themselves in boxing’s elite, but crossing over to a casual fanbase isn’t easy in this sport.

Becoming a household name outside of boxing purists usually requires viral social media fame, which often has nothing to do with boxing skills or acts of sensationalism beyond the ring. The general public is widely attracted to spectacles and trainwrecks.

Attention, whether positive or negative, leads to dollar signs. It’s the way of the modern world, but you can’t get something for nothing. There’s a cost for selling out all parts of your life for wealth. Read up on the personal lives of the Kardashians or Kanye West, and you’ll see what I’m getting at.

Jermall Charlo (31-0, 22 KOs) took a huge step up in competition against Sergiy Derevyachenko (13-3, 10 KOs) and proved to the world that he’s one of the best middleweights in the world. Derevyachenko was competitive, but Charlo controlled the action from start to finish. He showed power in both fists, ring awareness, and defensive quickness, which he hasn’t been pushed to display until he met Derevyachenko.

Jermell Charlo (34-1, 18 KOs) sported a bit of the sensational. He took some punishment to the body, or below the belt from his perspective, but he leveled Jeison Rosario (20-2-1, 14 KOs) three times. He ultimately stopped Rosario with an unassuming jab to the solar plexus in round 8 that laid Rosario out.

Rosario started to horrifyingly spasm and looked to be in a perilous situation. It was the car crash that you hate to see but morbidly stare at out of one part concern and the other awe. To everyone’s relief, Rosario got up and recovered after the count had long ceased.

The Charlo brothers lived up to their pre-fight words and helped create a unique boxing experience with their double feature formate. Their contests were competitive, but they triumphed with superior skills.

The Charlo brothers doubleheader offered an exciting night of fights, but boxing needs more cards like it if it wants to sustain its fanbase and spur growth.

That same day, unified junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor (17-0, 13 KOs) knocked out unknown Apinun Khongsong (16-1, 13 KOs) in the first round in London. Taylor dropped Khongsong with a left hook to the body, and that was all she wrote. Khongsong had no business being in the same ring with Taylor.

This matchup embodies a prevalent problem in boxing. Too often, sanctioning bodies, in this case, the IBF, force proven champions into mandatory defenses against highly overmatched and undeserving challengers, if you can call them that.

Khongsong had one win over a semi-reputable boxer in his four-year professional career. The vast majority of his fights took place in his home country of Thailand, which is not a boxing hotbed. Boxrec.com barely had him cracking the top 100 boxers in the division and now has him rated as 156th. How did the IBF see fit to handpick Khonsong for a title shot? It’s mismatches like these that plague the sport.

The bulk of boxing contests bare a closer resemblance to Taylor vs. Khongsong than Charlo vs. Derevyanchenko or Charlo vs. Rosario. Competitive bouts are hard to come by. A 50-50 fight is like spotting a four-leaf clover.

As good as Showtime’s fight card was, the Charlo doubleheader probably lagged behind college football and its combat sports counterpart UFC 253 if Google search trends are any indicator. The top three trending topics in the U.S. on Saturday, Sept. 26, were the Lakers, UFC 253, and LSU football. The Charlo brothers didn’t crack the top 20.

As long as the Taylor vs. Khongsong’s occur regularly over legitimate challenges, boxing’s star will continue to fade. Google Trends isn’t the end-all-be-all, but it’s a metric that paints a dismal picture for a sport that deserves more fanfare than it receives.

Hopefully, the promoters, matchmakers, and most importantly, the sanctioning bodies heed this warning and reach a consensus on limiting cakewalk fights and replacing them with battles whose endings aren’t so easily predictable.