Jermall Charlo vs Koen Mazoudier

This has got that odd smell about it, big-name American coming over, local lad getting the chance of his life, and everyone pretending it’s not meant to be a showcase. Charlo is the class act, no doubt. Former world champion, unbeaten, heavy hands, top-class pedigree. But he’s also been inactive enough to gather dust, and boxing doesn’t forgive rust. It sits in your legs, your timing, your reactions.

Mazoudier is not coming in as some Instagram boxer. He’s a proper fighting man, strong enough, game enough, and in Sydney he’ll have that crowd roaring every time he throws leather. But there are levels to this game, and Charlo has operated on a different floor altogether.

Charlo’s advantage is the jab and the spite behind it. When he gets that lead hand working, he can freeze a man, then drop the right hand through the middle. Mazoudier’s weakness is that he can be drawn into exchanges where he’s brave but a bit too available, and against Charlo, that’s asking for problems.

Mazoudier’s best route is pressure: make Charlo work, test the engine, rough him up inside, and see if the old sharpness is still there. But I don’t see him having the tools to keep Charlo uncomfortable for long.

Charlo starts carefully, shakes off the cobwebs, then begins walking him onto heavy shots. Mazoudier has a go, fair play to him, but by the middle rounds, the class gap shows. 

Prediction: Charlo by stoppage in the second half of the fight.