Jermell Charlo is not worried about putting on a special performance with his next fight being on Fox.
The WBC junior middleweight champion, defending his title against Tony Harrison on the December 22 PBC on Fox card from Brooklyn, New York, could become an instant superstar with a memorable showing. Charlo is one of several top fighters at 154 pounds that are on the brink of becoming top stars in the sport, but if one were to ask Charlo about it, he'll say he's not worried about it.
"[I'm treating this] as any other fight," Charlo told Fightful during a recent media call talking about the fight. "Regardless what TV network is promoting this fight or putting this fight on, I've been there before. I've done this before and I have to continue to do what I do. So yes, I'm super excited about FOX being such a marquis television network that allows more to see what we do. I wish that a lot of people were able to see this beforehand, then they would have a little bit more respect for me and what I do. So I'm glad that we got this opportunity."
After a battle with Austin Trout in June and impressive knockout victories over Erickson Lubin and Charles Hatley in 2017, Charlo has decided to switch things up a little bit for this training camp. But it wasn't a change of trainers or bringing in more sparring partners to prepare him for Harrison, it was a change in attitude as far as his approach to training camp is. Charlo stated that he's taking his coach's advice more seriously now and that he's settled down more this time around compared to previous camps.
"I've taken a lot of time to settle down within myself you know. I have everything I want, everything I need and so there's no point of this disobedience to any of my people. And I look at my coach a little bit different in this camp. He's like a father figure to me now. He's not a father figure, but when I go up to Dallas to do my training and stuff, I definitely pay attention to everything he's doing and we're well plugged in with each other. We connect really well. The greatest thing is he let me do me, he let me be me in that ring. Regardless of anything, if I feel like throwing a certain punch, [I'll say], 'Hey coach look listen I'm going to talk about this one punch that I think I can throw well because my body allows me to do it.' And so those are the things that I've been doing differently. I'm going to pull some tricks out the hat, its' going to be different," Charlo said.
Charlo's fight will be the co-main event to a tripleheader that will also feature Charlo's brother Jermall in the main event as well as a heavyweight bout between Dominic Breazeale and Carlos Negron in the opening bout.
