UNCASVILLE, Connecticut – Jermell Charlo is approximately 36 hours away from his chance to prove that there’s much more separating him from Jeison Rosario than the few feet they stood apart after weighing in Friday morning at Mohegan Sun.
Charlo (33-1, 17 KOs) got on the Mohegan Tribe Department of Regulation’s scale at 153¾ pounds for their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event. Rosario (20-1-1, 14 KOs) officially weighed in at 153½ pounds.
Charlo, 30, and Rosario, 25, will fight for Charlo’s WBC and Rosario’s IBF and WBA 154-pound championships Saturday night at Mohegan Sun Arena. Houston’s Charlo is regularly listed as a 4-1 favorite over the Dominican Republic’s Rosario, who upset 30-1 favorite Julian Williams (27-2-1, 16 KOs, 1 NC) by fifth-round technical knockout January 18 in Philadelphia to win the IBF, IBO and WBA belts.
Rosario relinquished the IBO title shortly after winning it.
Charlo will make his fourth defense of the WBC super welterweight title he regained from Tony Harrison in his last fight. Detroit’s Harrison (28-3, 21 KOs) upset Charlo by 12-round unanimous decision in December 2018 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, but Charlo knocked him out in the 11th round of their rematch last December 21 at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.
Earlier Friday morning, Mexicans Luis Nery (30-0, 24 KOs) and Aaron Alameda (25-0, 13 KOs) made weight for their 12-round, 122-pound title bout. They’ll fight for the vacant WBC super bantamweight championship in the match that’ll immediately precede Charlo-Rosario.
Tijuana’s Nery, 25, weighed in at 121½ pounds. Nogales’ Alameda, 27, also came in at 121½ pounds.
Nery, a former WBC bantamweight champ, will attempt to win a world title in a second weight class.
The title for which Nery and Alameda will fight became vacant when Rey Vargas (34-0, 22 KOs) suffered a broken leg and the WBC designated him its super bantamweight champion in recess. Nery is ranked number one by the WBC, five spots above the sixth-rated Alameda.
Nery is a consistently listed as a 25-1 favorite because Alameda has built his record against a low level of opposition.
Also Friday, Daniel Roman and Juan Carlos Payano were on weight for their 12-round, 122-pound WBC super bantamweight eliminator.
Los Angeles’ Roman (27-3-1, 10 KOs), a former IBF/WBA 122-pound champ, stepped on the scale at 121¼ pounds. Miami’s Payano (21-3, 9 KOs), an ex-WBA bantamweight champ from the Dominican Republic, weighed 121½ pounds.
The 30-year-old Roman, a 20-1 favorite, will fight for the first time since Uzbekistan’s Murodjon Akhmadaliev (8-0, 6 KOs) beat him by 12-round split decision to win the IBF junior featherweight title and the WBA super bantamweight crown January 30 in Miami. Akhmadaliev snapped Roman’s 19-fight winning streak.
The 36-year-old Payano hasn’t fought since Nery knocked him out in the ninth round of their July 2019 bout at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
The Roman-Payano fight will open Showtime’s second three-bout block of fights Saturday night. It’ll start following a 30-minute intermission after the first main event of the night, Jermall Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs) against Sergiy Derevyanchenko (13-2, 10 KOs) in a 12-round fight for Charlo’s WBC world middleweight title.
The first three-bout block, headlined by Charlo-Derevyanchenko, is set to start at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT ($74.95).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.