Boxing: Charlo Brothers Prepared to Claim Piece of History

Some of the best fights involving Jermall and Jermell Charlo were never seen. That’s because those fights were verbal barbs between themselves, always one cajoling and pushing the other.

They are on the verge of doing something never done before -- twin brothers holding every major junior middleweight title in existence. Jermall (23-0, 18 KOs) already has the IBF belt, which he will defend against Austin Trout (30-2, 17 KOs), while Jermell (27-0, 12 KOs) will take on John Jackson for the vacant WBC 154-pound title. The twins will be two-thirds of the Showtime junior middleweight title tripleheader on Saturday at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.

Jermall will have the toughest task but feels he knows how to fight Trout. He has received advice from Erislandy Lara, who beat Trout in 2013.

“Personally, all of the awards and being great and doing all of the things we have to do, we were planning on making history regardless when we started our careers,” Jermall said. “I want to put any pressure on my brother, and I want to help him make history. We always work on putting pressure on each other to make ourselves better, but I have to worry about what I have to do; and I’ll let Jermell put his focus on Jackson.

“I have a fight against Austin Trout and the resume he has, and Jermell [is] facing Jackson,” he added. “I’m building my legacy, and he’s building his, but we’re also building it together; but we wouldn’t have anything to prove to fight each other. A lot of people ask that, if we would fight each other. I’m inspired by my brother, and we compete and push beyond.”

Jermall admitted that he has never fought a southpaw before, so facing Trout will be a first.

“Lara told me about all of the things he faced in Trout,” Jermall said.

It has been a while since Trout was placed in this position. His last title fight came against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, a unanimous decision loss on April 20, 2013 -- over three years ago.

“I wasn’t surprised that it’s taken me this long to get back to the top, because I had to work my way from the bottom,” Trout said. “It’s taken two and a half years to get back [for a title shot]. I guess I’m surprised that it hasn’t taken me longer. In boxing, they tend to throw you away. All of the fights that I got into, I wasn’t supposed to win. Everything was stacked against me in the ‘Canelo’ fight. I got pushed to the side. I had to push myself back from zero.”

As he has more fights, Jermell does not see himself in the shadows of his brother. He feels no pressure to uphold what his twin does.

“Our [sibling rivalry] is pretty intense,” Jermell said. “We’re on each other [about] who is in the best shape, and competition makes us better. We’ll cheer each other from the locker room, but we never actually talked about both winning titles in the same night, on the same card, making history. It does make it more intense. There are bigger stakes. John Jackson is going to come. He’s going to try to do what he has to do. I’m going to be there.

“I feel me and my brother will make history,” he added. “I am fighting first and know I have to go first; it’s never been a problem. When we were younger, I was the one who would pop off first. I’m jumping off first and the one who goes crazy and taking chances. Jermall is older than me by a minute, though.”

Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.