LAS VEGAS – Jermall Charlo conceded late Saturday night that the super middleweight division is “hot.”

Charlo still owns the WBC middleweight title, though, and he hasn’t given up on moving back down to the 160-pound limit to defend it. The two middleweight matches that Charlo mentioned during his post-fight press conference were a mandatory defense against Carlos Adames and a championship unification fight with IBF/WBO champ Janibek Alimkhanuly.

The Dominican Republic’s Adames (23-1, 18 KOs) has held the WBC’s interim middleweight title for 13 months and, like Charlo, is affiliated with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions. Kazakhstan’s Alimkhanuly (15-0, 10 KOs) is promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., which would make putting together Charlo-Alimkhanuly more complicated.

Houston’s Charlo (33-0, 22 KOs) is nonetheless certain that he can still get down to 160 pounds, despite the fact that he officially weighed 3½ pounds above the contracted catch weight of 163 pounds for his 10-round unanimous points win against Jose Benavidez Jr. (28-3-1, 19 KOs) on Saturday night at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino’s Michelob ULTRA Arena.

“I mean, yeah, I would definitely love to step up to, you know, get right back in a banger,” Charlo said. “You know, I’ll fight the Janibek and I’ll fight the mandatory. What’s his name? Carlos Adames. Shout out to them guys for making it to number one. You know, they did what they had to do. I’m definitely the type of fighter to give ‘em a chance. I never dodged nobody. I never ducked nobody. If the circumstances are right, you will see me in there wit’ ‘em. I’m not here to like hold no belt or do nothing strange. Shout out to the WBC. You know, they understood my situation. They understood my problem. They know that I’m a real champ in they division.

“And I love them for understanding me, and we gonna put up, you know, the belt as soon as we fight. Like the next fight, the belt will be on the line. If it’s at 160, that’s where it’s going. If I gotta go to 168, I’ll go to 168 and fight for this interim belt that [David Benavidez] just won or he just defended tonight. Like I’m down for whatever. … I’m not really a matchmaker. I’m not the person that’s put me in these positions. I’m happy to be here and I’ll fight my way through it. But if it comes to [that] time and I fight Adames – and I’m pretty sure that mandatory’s gonna come to the point where I have to fight Adames – and I have to fight Janibek to become undisputed or unify the division at 160.”

Naturally, if Canelo Alvarez considers Charlo as his opponent for his return to the ring May 4, Charlo would gladly remain in the super middleweight division. Charlo and David Benavidez, who stopped Demetrius Andrade after the sixth round of the main event Saturday night, both called out boxing’s biggest star during the post-fight press conference.

The 33-year-old Charlo also acknowledged David Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs), the WBC’s mandatory challenger for one of Alvarez’s four titles, and rival Caleb Plant (22-2, 13 KOs) as potential opponents for his next fight. Plant, a former IBF super middleweight champ who slapped Charlo in the face during a highly publicized incident at the Terence Crawford-Errol Spence Jr. weigh-in July 28 at T-Mobile Arena, sat ringside Saturday night to watch Charlo beat Benavidez.

“The sky’s the limit right now,” Charlo said. “I have a championship at 160, right? … Imma get right back into camp. I’m not taking no days off. Imma be training Monday. So, Imma get right back on it. Imma get myself, you know, a little bit of time with the family. We gonna sort it out. Imma talk to [WBC president] Mauricio [Sulaiman] about the WBC and the things that I need to do. But, I mean, ’68 is hot. You know, David Benavidez just won against Demetrius. We’ll be a great fight.

“I saw Caleb Plant in the crowd. That’ll be a good fight. I know there’s some competition at 168. I easily could make 168. But, I mean, the sky is the limit right now. Imma just go let God do what he do and he gonna put me in the right path of where I need to be and we just gonna keep going, man. Our legacy is our legacy.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.