Fighting Words: Jermall Charlo Prepared For Sergiy Derevyanchenko

As Showtime prepares to put on shows during a pandemic, one headliner is preparing for a threat that has managed to impress in his past few fights.

Jermall will defend his WBC Middleweight Championship against Sergiy Derevyanchenko on September 26.

This is the third title fight for Derevyanchenko (13-2) in four outings. “The Technician” impressed against Daniel Jacobs in October 2018 inside Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater. Fighting for the IBF Middleweight Title, Derevyanchenko forced Jacobs to get back into the bout, and Jacobs ended up with a split decision win.

After rebounding with a win over Jack Culcay, Derevyanchenko faced Gennadiy Golovkin last October for the IBF and IBO Middleweight Titles. In another fight where it looked like Derevyanchenko was about to pull off the win, Golovkin ended up winning via unanimous decision. Charlo (30-0) believes the opposite of what others thought, but he still commend’s his opponent for putting on a good fight.

“I didn’t think Derevyanchenko won the fight against Golovkin, but he definitely made it a lot closer than people expected,” Charlo stated to the media during the fight announcement. “I didn’t think people knew about his style and what he brings to the ring. It was close, but I didn’t think he won the fight.”

Derevyanchenko has been known as a good fight for some of the top fighters out there. Demetrius Andrade has stated he’d be interested in facing him, and at one point Canelo Alvarez was on Derevyanchenko’s radar. A win could help Charlo become a true threat at middleweight.

“This win lets people know that I’m ready for the biggest fights against the other middleweight champions,” Charlo went on to say. “Derevyanchenko has been in with tough competition, but he’s come up short. I know that people will have questions no matter what happens, but that’s just part of boxing. I’m ready to fight.”

The 30-year-old Charlo (30-0) won the vacant interim WBC Middleweight Title from Hugo Centeno Jr. He was then promoted to undisputed champion by the start of 2019. Charlo has defended his title three times. His last fight was in December 2019, beating Dennis Hogan via TKO.

As far as how the fight will go, the man with 22 wins via knockout believes he can take down Derevyanchenko.

“It would definitely deliver a statement to the boxing world if I knock him out,” Charlo stated. “The power is for real and I can get in there and hurt just about anybody. I feel like we’re going to meet in the middle of the ring and let our hands go. May the best man win. My game plan is going to be to shut his game plan down. We’ll see on fight night.”

All fights will be taking place from inside the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT.