Jermall Charlo never looked better against a championship-caliber opponent than when he easily outboxed Sergiy Derevyanchenko.

Ukraine’s Derevyanchenko was considered Charlo’s toughest test when they fought for WBC middleweight title in September 2020. He had lost only a split decision to Daniel Jacobs and a close unanimous decision to Gennadiy Golovkin. The latter was a brutal battle one certainly could’ve argued Derevyanchenko won before he encountered the champion Charlo.

Houston’s Charlo defeated Derevyanchenko much more efficiently than Golovkin, who, along with Canelo Alvarez, were the two high-profile opponents much of the boxing world wanted Charlo to fight at that time.

Fast forward almost five years, and Charlo still doesn’t have that legacy-defining fight on his resume. He turned 35 on May 18 and is preparing to fight huge underdog Thomas "Cornflakea" LaManna on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Charlo remains unbeaten, but he admitted during an interview with The Ring that the personal problems he endured in recent years damaged him more than boxing wars would’ve done. The polarizing Charlo has been open on social media about his mental health struggles, which prompted WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman to give him additional time to defend his middleweight title.

Sulaiman stripped Charlo of his championship in May 2024, after he was arrested in Pearland, Texas. He was charged with driving while intoxicated, leaving the scene of an accident and eluding police.

“Stress is harder than some of the punches,” Charlo said. “Some things you gotta go through in life is harder than some of the punches sometimes. But I do feel replenished. I definitely feel like I got my fire back, that fire you need to prevail, I got that back. And I’m happy about it.”

If Charlo (33-0, 22 KOs) defeats LaManna (39-5-1, 18 KOs) in a 10-round co-feature, he might meet rival Caleb Plant next, assuming he beats another big underdog, Armando Resendiz (15-2, 11 KOs), in the 12-round main event at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino’s Michelob ULTRA Arena.

Charlo will end an 18-month layoff when he battles LaManna (23-2, 14 KOs) and fights for just the third time since his victory over Derevyanchenko.

Retirement is in the back of Charlo’s mind. Still, the rejuvenated former two-division champion plans to start making up for lost time in a fight Amazon’s Prime Video will stream to its subscribers as part of a four-bout show scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET (2 a.m. GMT).

“I wanna hang it up and enjoy the fruits of my labor sooner or later,” Charlo said. “Right now, I’m still working. I’m still having fun. I’m still enjoying boxing, so I’m not really pressed about what’s in the future besides enjoying it, thanking God for what he has done for me and getting to the next bag. I feel like, sooner or later, I’ll get the big fight I’ve been longing for and be able to please my fans and everyone who’s been following me throughout the years.”

A fight with Plant would attract attention, but it isn’t the type of bout in which we would learn how good Jermall Charlo could’ve been. Rather than challenging Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KOs) when they were both in their physical primes, Charlo would face a fellow former champion who Alvarez has already knocked out.

If Charlo were to stop Plant as well, it would be one of his most noteworthy wins in 16 years as a professional. It would nevertheless leave us to wonder what could’ve come of Charlo’s curious career had he fought Alvarez or Golovkin when it mattered.

Oscar De La Hoya wasn’t the only one who wondered Thursday about the growing number of boxers trained by Eddy Reynoso who’ve tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

Reynoso distanced himself from failed tests by Alvarez (Clenbuterol in 2018), Julio Cesar Martinez (Clenbuterol in 2019), Oscar Valdez (Phentermine in 2021) and now Jaime Munguia. Mexico’s Munguia had exogenous testosterone metabolites in his system when tested prior to his points victory over Bruno Surace on May 3 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Two other boxers Reynoso has trained, Ryan Garcia (Ostarine in 2024) and Luis Nery (Zilpaterol in 2017), tested positive for PEDs when they worked with other trainers.

Reynoso trained Munguia for the first time for his immediate rematch with France’s Surace, who stunningly knocked out the former WBO junior middleweight champion in the sixth round of their first fight Dec. 14 in Munguia’s hometown of Tijuana. Reynoso, most known for guiding Alvarez to titles in four weight classes, hasn’t helped his cause by absolving himself of any responsibility for fighters who train in his gym regularly using substances banned by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association.

“I feel disappointed that I’m being criticized,” Reynoso told ESPN.com after Valdez tested positive in 2021. “I’m the trainer. I teach boxing, I teach technique, I prepare the fighters to fight. That’s my role. Unfortunately, there are some people in the press that are trying to take me down and attacking me for something I’m not responsible for. Haters.

“The analogy to this is when a manager picks bad fights for his fighter and then they blame the trainer. They’re mixing up the roles. … I didn’t study medicine, I don’t give advice on medicine, I don’t give advice on nutrition.”

Reynoso also manages fighters he trains, including Alvarez. You’d also think that if this were a mere matter of being unfairly criticized, Reynoso at the very least would’ve taken a more active role in educating himself and monitoring what his fighters are ingesting so that this wouldn’t continue to happen.

Light heavyweight Khalil Coe came in at a career-low 173 pounds Thursday for his immediate rematch with Manuel Gallegos on Friday night at Domo Alcalde in Guadalajara, Mexico (DAZN; 9 p.m. ET; 2 a.m. GMT).

Coe, 28, told The Ring this week that he started taking training more seriously because he was hospitalized twice in the three weeks prior to his ninth-round technical knockout loss to Gallegos on Nov. 9 at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Jersey City, New Jersey, native was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis — an uncommon, complicated muscle condition that stalled Vergil Ortiz’s career in 2022-23.

That affliction caused Coe (9-1-1, 7 KOs) to be more mindful of recovering between training sessions and entering camp at a lower weight. Coe’s career is essentially at stake in this rematch, thus it’ll be interesting to see if he can avenge his lone loss to Mexico’s Gallegos (21-2-1, 1 8KOs) and start realizing the potential he displayed as an accomplished amateur within USA Boxing’s program.

Not sure what’s harder to believe — that Don King bid $1.1 million for the right to promote Kubrat Pulev-Michael Hunter or that this has been sanctioned as a heavyweight title bout by the WBA.

For those begrudgingly keeping track, Oleksandr Usyk is the only WBA heavyweight champion that should exist. In its never-ending pursuit of championship confusion, the WBA recognizes Bulgaria’s Pulev (32-3, 14 KOs) as its secondary champion — the World Boxing Association “world” champion, apparently to make the distinction read and sound as ridiculous as possible.

And Hunter (24-1-2, 17 KOs), well, the Las Vegas resident holds the prestigious WBA "gold" heavyweight title, a brazen creation to scam sanctioning fees from even more fighters.

The WBA didn’t divulge how many promoters King beat in its Pulev-Hunter purse bid Tuesday in Houston. Couldn’t have been many, considering the minimum allowable bid was $1 million and the WBA charged a $15,000 fee simply to participate in the process.

Devin Haney went from almost securing the rematch he wants with Ryan Garcia to another intriguing welterweight fight with rival Teofimo Lopez, to, frankly, who knows what? With fights against Garcia and Lopez unavailable, at least for now, Haney’s two most profitable options have been eliminated through no fault of his own. If Haney (32-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC) is willing to move all the way up to the welterweight limit of 147 pounds, Rolando 'Rolly' Romero (17-2, 13 KOs) might be the most marketable option for his next fight. … It’s not the WBO junior middleweight title bout we wanted, but Xander Zayas-Jorge Garcia Perez should be a fan-friendly fight for that unclaimed championship July 26 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Garcia Perez (33-4, 26 KOs) swarmed previously undefeated Charles Conwell (21-1, 16 KOs), consistently traded with him from the pocket and upset the 2016 American Olympian by split decision April 19 at Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California. Zayas, 22, on paper appears to have taken the most difficult fight of the Sunrise, Florida, resident’s five-year pro career against the upset-minded, 28-year-old Mexican contender. … Credit to Golden Boy Promotions for putting another of their undefeated fighters, Floyd Schofield Jr., in the ring with Tevin Farmer on the Jake Paul-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. undercard June 26 at Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Philadelphia’s Farmer (33-8-1, 8 KOs, 1 NC), a former IBF junior lightweight champ, almost upset Mexican southpaw William Zepeda (33-0, 27 KOs) in their first fight Nov. 16 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs), of Austin, Texas, will fight for the first time since he was hospitalized and infamously removed from his shot at Shakur Stevenson’s WBC lightweight title three months ago in Riyadh.