Charlo Twins Not Identical in Every Way

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My first brush with identical twins came in my old neighborhood in Uptown New Orleans and involved pretty brunettes named Bonnie and Connie. Their mother dressed them in matching clothes for years, and over the same period they frequently wore their hair in the same style, either by choice or by maternal dictum. The only way even their friends could tell them apart was when either smiled; one of the twins had a slightly chipped tooth that alerted the world as to who was whom.

But despite so many obvious physical and personality similarities, these were separate and distinct human beings who eventually chafed at always being presented in tandem. At some point the matching outfits and hairstyles gave way to personal touches which served as a signal that each twin was ready to forge her own identity. They’re married women now, with their own families, still very close in a sense but inevitably removed from one another by time and distance (one resides in suburban New Orleans, the other outside Chicago).

And so it is for boxing’s mirror images, IBF junior middleweight champion Jermall Charlo and his top-ranked twin, Jermell, who, at least when they’re wearing shirts, could easily pass for one another—right up to the time the opening bell rings and their slight but discernible differences in the ring serve as telltale distinguishing features. Even more noticeably, Jermall is the one with the well-tattooed chest while Jermell (who is one minute younger) is inked only on his arms and shoulders. Occasionally, one or the other will further express his individuality by trying out a different haircut.

Identical twins in boxing are rare enough to attract attention whenever they come along, but a brighter spotlight has shone upon the 25-year-old Charlos because both are positioned at or near the top of the 154-pound weight class. Jermell is ranked No. 1 by the WBC and the IBF, although he and Jermall are adamant that they will never square off against each other in an official capacity. By virtue of his championship belt, which he captured with an impressive third-round stoppage of Cornelius “K9” Bundrage on Sept. 12 in Mashantucket, Conn., Jermall has assumed—at least for now—the lead position in their friendly and familial competition, which is the way it usually works. Among other sets of identical twins, now-retired 2004 U.S. Olympian Rock Allen (15-0, 7 KOs) attained greater heights than his twin Tiger Allen (3-0, 2 KOs) and menacingly nicknamed Aaron “Homicide” Mitchell (27-2-1, 21 KOs) surpassed Eric “Murder” Mitchell (23-13-2, 11 KOs), who is 1-9-1 in his last 11 bouts.

Jermell (27-0, 12 KOs) took another step toward gaining pugilistic parity with Jermall on Saturday night, when he dominated 39-year-old former WBA super welterweight titlist Joachim Alcine (35-8-2, 21 KOs) en route to winning via a sixth-round TKO in the main event of the Premier Boxing Champions on NBC SportsNet fight card at the NRG Arena in the Charlos’ hometown of Houston.

All right, so Alcine is clearly on the downhill side of what had been a pretty good career. The Quebec-based Haitian is now 5-8-2 in his last 15 bouts, and against the much more mobile, faster-handed Charlo, he resembled a plow horse entered in the Breeders Cup against Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. It was almost inevitable from the start that Jermell would snap his four-bout streak of points victories and register his first victory inside the distance since he stopped Jose Angel Rodriguez in 10 rounds on Oct. 14, 2013. So it was never a matter of if, but when, and referee Jon Shorle did the right thing when he stepped in and waved things off 1 minute, 21 seconds into the sixth round of the scheduled 10-rounder, with Alcine already having gone down once in that round and obviously in distress.

Jermell didn’t make too much of what he had labeled a “stay-busy” fight, but he wanted to demonstrate to the world that, under new trainer Derrick James, he had added another element—Jermall-level power—to an already-impressive array of skills.

“A big shout-out to Ronnie Shields,” Jermell said of his now ex-trainer. “He was a great coach. He did everything he could for me. I respect him so much. I mean, he’s still my brother’s coach. But Derrick James came in the picture and said, `Hey, your punches are there. You want to throw them. You want to hit hard. Let’s become a puncher as well as a boxer.’

“I wanted to get the knockout. I haven’t had a knockout in a while.”

Jermall’s higher knockout quotient—he brings a 22-0 record, with 17 KOs into his first defense of his IBF title, against “Silky” Wilky Campfort (21-1, 12 KOs) on Nov. 28 in Dallas, also to be televised by PBC on NBC—is regarded as the main reason he has gained some separation from Jermell.

Former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins, whose promotional company, Golden Boy, once had the twins under contract until they opted to become part of uber-manager Al Haymon’s deep stable, casts a shaky vote for Jermall as the better of near-equals.

“I think Jermall is slightly more skilled, but that’s just my opinion,” said Hopkins, who has never been one to sit on the fence regardless of topic.

Even Jermell agrees, sort of.

“I feel that he’s the better fighter,” Jermell, assessing where he is now in relation to Jermall, said in a recent interview with Showtime. “My brother, he’s heavy-handed. But my speed is a lot better.”

“Deep down inside, he knows I’m better,” Jermall said, teasingly, in the same interview.

But, as was the case with the brothers Klitschko, who certainly look like identical twins although the now-retired Vitali, 44, is 56 months older than Wladimir, fight fans can forget any notion of the Charlos throwing down for family supremacy.

“We always hear, `Who would win between you two?’, and it used to start a little war between us,” said Jermall, who quickly pointed out that “We’ll never fight each other in the ring.” He did allow, however, that “Five years from now, we’ll have every belt in the junior middleweight (or super welterweight, depending on which terminology is preferred by a given sanctioning body) division.”

It could be sooner than that, or maybe never if one or both brothers move up to middleweight or super middleweight, as some expect will be the case in the not-too-distant future. Jermell was 155¾ pounds at the weigh-in for Alcine, and had rehydrated to 160 by the time he stepped inside the ropes. But both brothers insist they can still “comfortably” make the 154-pound junior middle limit and plan to stick around there for a while.

Now that he’s intent on flashing more of the punching power that he insists James will have bring out of him, Jermell feels he’s ready for his own shot at a title, and the sooner the better.

“What’s next for me is the WBC,” he said, noting that Floyd Mayweather Jr., his retirement announcement notwithstanding, is still recognized as the WBC super welterweight champion. “Right now Floyd Mayweather holds the title of the WBC (and WBA “super” belt). I’m ranked No. 1 in it. If Floyd don’t get rid of the titles, there you go. I’m here.”

Does that mean, he was asked, that he’s calling out “Money”?

“Absolutely,” he said. “We would love to fight Floyd. My brother has the IBF, Erislandy (Lara) has the (“regular”) WBA. The WBO (whose 154-pound title is now held by England’s Liam Smith), I want that and I want the WBC, too.”

For much of their careers, the Charlos have been presented almost as a single entity. They’ve appeared four times on the same fight cards, the identical-twin angle played up for all it was worth. But, as was the case with my childhood friends Bonnie and Connie, similarity doesn’t mean complete sameness. Nor should it.

“I think us being twins has had a beneficial effect on both of us because of marketability,” Jermell said. “It’s one of the reasons why we’ve been pushed the way we’ve been pushed. I think we always had it in our minds that someday it might turn into a business asset. We always got more attention because we’re twins. It was fun. We slept in the same bedroom all the way through high school.

“But, really, we are different. Jermall loves being in the country; I’m more of a city person. I hate being around mud and dirt, and he loves that nasty stuff. We like different kinds of cars, different kinds of music. I think the time has come for each of us to be recognized for our individual accomplishments.”

Bernard Fernandez, a five-term president of the Boxing Writers Association of America, received the Nat Fleischer Award from the BWAA in April 1999 for lifetime achievement and was inducted into the Pennsylvania Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005, as well as the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame in 2013. The New Orleans-born sports writer has worked in the industry since 1969 and pens a weekly column on the Sweet Science for Sherdog.com.