We do not yet have an undisputed champion at junior middleweight, and that’s because Jermell Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs) and Brian Castano (17-0-1, 12 KOs) fought to a split draw in their 12-round thriller at AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. Charlo keeps his WBA, WBC, and IBF titles while Castano remains the WBO champion, but not one gets all the belts yet.
This was a great fight with a bad scorecard (117-111 Charlo by Nelson Vazquez) but I don’t think anyone will complain about a rematch. Castano largely outboxed Charlo and was consistently on the front foot as usual, but Charlo had the most dominant round when he rocked Castano on the counter in the 10th. For once, Castano was dissuaded from coming forward and was in survival mode. Both men should be lauded for their chins, as Castano cracked Charlo clean several times and stunned him late in the 3rd round.
There was some intriguing technical boxing but on several occasions it turned into a slugfest in the pocket to the delight of the fans. We got treated to an awesome encounter but not a desired result. Many had it for Castano and could see a draw, but not even Jermall Charlo could’ve scored that 117-111 for his twin brother.
Watch the highlights at the top of the page.
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