By Allan Fox: In a huge shocker, #5 WBC Tony Harrison (28-2, 21 KOs) edged highly hyped previously undefeated WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo (31-1, 15 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night on PBC on FOX & FOX Deportes at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The scores were 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113. Boxing News 24 gave it to the 28-year-old Harrison by the score 116-112.
Harrison wanted it more, threw more punches, and landed the cleaner shots throughout most of the contest. Harrison dominated the first six rounds, and then let his foot off the gas in the championship rounds, allowing Charlo to come back a little in rounds 10, 11 and 12. It was a great effort from Harrison in pulling off a big upset.
It was a definitely a poor performance by Charlo, who had no answers for the punching power, and precise placement of Harrison’s shots. Charlo had struggled in the past when facing guys with punching power in his fights against Gabriel Rosado, Vanes Martirosyan, and he even had problems with Austin Trout. For that reason, it’s not all that surprising that Charlo was out of his element against the hard hitting Harrison.
It might be a good idea for Jermell to move up to 160 right about now. He looked weight drained at the weigh-in last Friday. It’s common knowledge that both Jermell and his brother Jermall Charlo are huge fighters that rehydrate into the 170s for their fights. Jermall already moved up in weight to middleweight in 2017. Maybe it’s time for Jermell to move up as well to the middleweight division. A fighter can only make weight for a division well below their body size so many times before they weaken, and Jermell looked very weak tonight. Jermell will likely insist on the rematch, and that could hurt his career if he’s beaten a second time by Harrison. If Charlo is going to take a risk, he should face IBF/WBA junior middleweight champion Jarrett Hurd. Losing to him won’t be as bad as it would if he gets beaten a second time by Harrison.
Harrison has always been a good fighter. He gave Jarrett Hurd problems before running out of gas and getting stopped in the 9th round in February 2017. Harrison experienced the same problems in running out of gas and getting stopped by Willie Nelson in 2015. Tonight, though, Charlo wasn’t putting the pressure on Harrison that Hurd and Nelson did, and this allowed Tony to pace himself, conserve energy and go the full 12 round distance to get the victory. Harrison built up a wide enough lead in the first eight rounds for him to coast during the championship rounds to get the victory.
Since this was a voluntary defense for Charlo, 28, it means that there will likely be a rematch with Harrison. There’s no way that Charlo’s manager Al Haymon of Premier Boxing Champions is going to let Harrison take off without setting up a rematch between those two. Charlo absolutely needs the rematch to keep his career moving forward. If Harrison is able to walk away and leave Charlo as a beaten champion, it’s going to hurt his career. It already his career in losing to Harrison tonight. A rematch might not be any different though. Harrison is a better puncher than Charlo, and he’s the superior offensive fighter of the two. That’s not going to change in the rematch. Charlo isn’t going to all of a sudden develop into the offensive fighter Harrison is.
Just by looking at the way Charlo performed tonight, he won’t do well against IBF/WBA junior middleweight champion Jarrett Hurd when/if those two fight each other. Hurd did a much better job in his fight against Harrison in what we saw tonight. Had Charlo been fighting Hurd tonight instead of Harrison, it likely would have ended badly for him.
