Jermall Charlo performed as expected Saturday night in a fight he entered as an overwhelming favorite to win.

His promoter nevertheless believes Charlo's successful return from an 18-month layoff warrants an instant move to the top of the super middleweight division. The Ring didn't rank Charlo in any division prior to his sixth-round stoppage of Thomas LaManna because the former WBC middleweight and IBF junior middleweight champion hadn't boxed since he out-pointed Jose Benavidez Jr. unanimously in November 2023.

Now that the mercurial Charlo is active again, Tom Brown considers him the No. 1 contender for Canelo Alvarez’s Ring, IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO 168-pound championships. Mexico’s Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KOs) is set to defend those titles against another four-weight world champion, Terence Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs), on September 13 at a venue to be determined.

Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs), of Omaha, Nebraska, will move up two weight classes, 14 pounds altogether, to battle Alvarez. Charlo is 35, yet senses the best is yet to come for him in his new division.

"Jermall Charlo jumped to the head of the class as the No. 1-ranked contender in the super middleweight division," Brown, president of TGB Promotions, told The Ring's Manouk Akopyan following Charlo's easy victory over LaManna. "It's Canelo Alvarez, and then him. And I would put Armando Resendiz at No. 2.”

Mexico’s Resendiz upset Caleb Plant by split decision in the 12-round main event Amazon’s Prime Video streamed Saturday night from Mandalay Bay's Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas.

Plant (23-3, 14 KOs), a former IBF super middleweight champ from Ashland City, Tennessee, entered his fight with Resendiz as The Ring's third-ranked contender in the 168-pound division. Cameroon-born, Quebec-based Christian Mbilli (28-0, 23 KOs) is ranked No. 1 by The Ring and Los Angeles' Diego Pacheco (23-0, 18 KOs) is ranked second.

Resendiz (16-2, 11 KOs) was not ranked in The Ring's super middleweight top 10, in part because he was stopped by Elijah Garcia in the eighth round of a middleweight slugfest two fights earlier.

Houston’s Charlo fought for just the third time Saturday night since he unanimously outpointed Sergiy Derevyanchenko in their 12-round fight for Charlo’s WBC middleweight title in September 2020 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Charlo (34-0, 23 KOs) feels completely comfortable in the super middleweight division, in which he hopes he finally fights Alvarez, particularly now Charlo's grudge match with Plant appears unlikely.

"I am one of the most dangerous fighters at 168," Charlo said during his post-fight press conference. "I'm just getting to 168, so I'm getting familiar with it. But sooner or later, my team – I got the best team, trust me … Tom Brown, Al Haymon, everybody. Everybody that work wit' me, they know how to go after the right things. Now that Caleb Plant has lost the [WBA interim] belt, I mean, we gotta go back to the drawing board. But it's still some good fights at 168."

Charlo was a 12-1 favorite versus LaManna (39-6-1, 18 KOs), whom he dropped three times before ringside physician advised referee Mark Nelson to end their scheduled 10-round bout one second into the sixth.

Their fight was designed as a tune-up for Charlo, who overcame numerous personal issues to return to boxing, including an arrest for driving while intoxicated, leaving the scene of an accident and fleeing police in May 2024. The WBC stripped Charlo of its middleweight title soon after his arrest.