By Daniel Gonzalez

Brooklyn, NY – Jermall Charlo (33-0, 22 KOs) landed a perfectly placed left hook on the chin of Irishman Dennis Hogan (28-3-1, 7 KOs) early in the 7th round that forced referee Charlie Fitch to stop the fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. Hogan managed to make it to his feet before the 10 count, but Fitch had seen enough. It appeared to be a good stoppage, as the heavily favored Charlo not only controlled the first 6th rounds, he was also clearly the bigger and stronger man in the ring.

Charlo has now successfully defended his WBC middleweight world title 3 times. However, his last two defenses were against opponents who moved up in weight to challenge him. Both Dennis Hogan and Brandon Adams were a lot smaller than Jermall Charlo and never really posed a threat to him. Unfortunately, he has been unable to secure a fight with any of the 160lb elite fighters. Charlo has previously indicated that he wanted to get in ring with Gennady “GGG” Golovkin or Canelo Alvarez, but he has not been afforded the opportunity to compete in a big middleweight fight.

In the post fight press conference, when asked who he would like to fight next, Charlo claimed that he would fight anyone. However, he did not mention any specific fighter by name. If he is unable to make fights with GGG or Canelo, the next compelling match up with be with WBO Middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade. Jermall needs a signature win over a worthy opponent. To date, his biggest win was in 2016 over current IBF, WBA and IBO super welterweight title holder Julian “J-Rock” Williams. Since then, Matt Korobov gave him a great fight, but the rest of his fights were not dangerous match ups at all.

Jermall Charlo expects big things from himself in 2020, but before he gets there, he will be pulling for his brother Jermell to win back the WBC super welterweight title he lost to Tony Harrison a year ago. Are the self proclaimed “future of boxing” Charlos, really the future of the boxing? I think 2020 will be the year that we will find out if they can live up to that proclamation.

Daniel Gonzalez is a Senior Boxing Writer. Dan writes for many publications including Boxing Action Magazine, www.BoxingAction24.com and www.SideStepBoxing.com

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Trapp & PBC