Jermell Charlo: If Floyd wants to keep belt, then come fight me

Jermell Charlo (26-0, 11 KOs) has been trying to earn a title shot for some time now. The Houston native was nearly on his way until a proposed fight with Demetrius Andrade fell apart (with Andrade pulling out of the fight) roughly a year ago. Now Charlo will be headlining a fight with Joachim Alcine (35-7-2, 21 KOs) on PBC this Saturday in what he admits is just a "stay busy" fight.

With his twin brother Jermall Charlo now holding the IBF title at junior middleweight, and with Liam Smith just winning the WBO title a couple of weeks ago, that only leaves two other major title belts on the table -- both held by a retired Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Despite Mayweather not having fought in the junior middleweight division since he beat Canelo Alvarez (two years ago), and despite Mayweather retiring after defeating Andre Berto in September, neither the WBC nor WBA have stripped Mayweather of his 154lb titles. Charlo, rightfully so, has a major problem with this.

"If Floyd Mayweather wants to continue holding that title, I'm a young gun and am coming to try and take it," Charlo told ESPN.com. "If Floyd wants to hold it, then come fight me. I'm ranked No. 1 at 154 [by the WBC] so we can make a weight adjustment.

"He has yet to fight a young, black, undefeated fighter and a hungry one at the same time. I felt Berto was young and black, but not hungry and obviously not within my caliber as a top contender."

So Charlo believes, as do many others, that Mayweather will indeed be making a return to the square-circle after a lengthy vacation, and that the sanctioning bodies will continue to bend to Mayweather's whims.

Therefore since Charlo can't dictate the terms of boxing politics, he says he just has to focus on what's in front of him and continue to improve as a fighter.

"I can't continue to focus on why I haven't had yet won a world title, I need to focus on being a better fighter," Charlo said. "I feel [Alcine] is going to try to dictate and take advantage that I'm young. But he fails to realize that I'm all that, as well.

"He's going to come trying to bully me and be rough but I'm going to make it rough for him. I'm going to win this fight by knockout."

Keep fighting and winning, Charlo. Do that and you'll get your title shot eventually.