Jermell Charlo vs. Brian Castano on July 3 or 10th, Spence vs. Ugas on card

By Boxing News - 04/10/2021 - Comments

By Sean Jones: A fight is being negotiated by PBC between 154-lb champions Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano for July 3rd or 10th, with IBF/WBC 147-lb champion Errol Spence taking on WBA belt-holder Yorgenis Ugas on the undercard in a pair of unification matches.

Spence will be a huge favorite against Ugas, who had his hands full in his loss to Shawn Porter in 2019. It’s still an excellent fight and arguably superior to Errol’s last one against Danny Garcia.

The fight card is expected to be announced soon, which is great news for fans.

Where will the Charlo vs. Castano card take place?

They want to stage the Charlo-Castano & Spence-Ugas card in the state of Texas, seeing that both Charlo and Spence are from that state.

A fight card of this magnitude will almost surely sell out a stadium in Texas, be it the AT&T Stadium or the NRG Stadium.  Houston is being talked about where the Charlo-Castano card could take place, which means it could wind up at the 71,000 seat NRG Stadium.

Additionally, Texas is ahead of the other states in the U.S, allowing full crowds for sporting events.

The options for the date of the Jermell vs. Castano card are on July 3 or 10.

Image: Jermell Charlo vs. Brian Castano on July 3 or 10th, Spence vs. Ugas on card

Compared to the previous fight for Charlo last September, this is far bigger and more compelling.

Last September, Charlo fought IBF/WBA light middleweight champion Jeison Rosario in a unification fight, while his brother Jermall Charlo fought Sergiy Derevyanchenko on the same card.

Although both fights were competitive, the buzz about the card was less than huge.

Fans weren’t excited at seeing Jermell fight Rosario and his brother Jermall defend his WBC middleweight title against Derevyanchenko, who was coming off a loss to Gennadiy Golovkin.

Charlo vs. Castano card expected to be PPV

This would obviously be on Fox Sports pay-per-view, but the boxing public would have few complaints about paying to see such a high-quality card as this one.

The Argentinian publication La Nacion reports the news of the Charlo vs. Castano & Spence vs. Ugas unification fights.

IBF/WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo (33-1, 19 KOs) will have his three titles on the line when he faces WBO champ Castano (17-0-1, 12 KOs) for the undisputed 154-lb championship.

Image: Jermell Charlo vs. Brian Castano on July 3 or 10th, Spence vs. Ugas on card

As for Errol Spence (27-0, 21 KOs), he’ll have his IBF & WB welterweight titles up for grabs when he takes on the talented WBA 147-lb champion Yordenis Ugas (26-4, 12 KOAccording to La Nacion, s).

Al Haymon and Sebastian Contursi are working on putting together the two unification fights.

The Charlo – Castano undisputed championship fight winner will likely face #1 WBO contender Tim Tszyu before the end of 2021 in a big money fight in Australia with all four titles on the line.

Castano recently beat WBO 154-lb champion, Patrick Teixeira by a 12 round unanimous decision on February 13th in Indio, California.

Can Jermell handle an inside war?

It was an exciting fight with Castano taking action to the inside and throwing nonstop punches for 12 rounds to defeat Teixeira by a lopsided decision by the scores 119-109, 120-108, 117-111 to capture the WBO junior middleweight title.

Jermell, 30, will likely be the favorite to defeat the unbeaten Castano, but you can’t rule out a minor upset. With Castano being an unknown with many the oddsmakers, they don’t know how good this guy is.

Castano is like the 154-lb division’s version of a Shawn Porter, a guy that crowds his taller opponents and forces them into grueling inside wars.

Charlo could have many problems with Castano if he’s forced to brawl with him at close quarters for 12 rounds instead of conducting the fight from the outside the way he’s accustomed to fighting.

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Castano has never been beaten before as a nine-year pro, and many boxing fans believe he deserved a win in his 12-round draw against Erislandy Lara in 2019.

He worked Lara over the entire fight and got the better of the action, but he didn’t get the win as the B-side.

Charlo is beatable

Charlo was supposed to beat Tony Harrison in their first fight in 2018, and he ended up losing a 12 round decision.

Although Jermell avenged his loss to Harrison by beating him by an 11th round knockout in their rematch in December 2019, the fight was competitive and not a mismatch.

In Charlo’s recent win over Jeison ‘Banana’ Rosario last September, he took many shots before putting him away in the 8th round.

That fight was conducted on the outside, though, and that played into Charlo’s hands. He didn’t have to deal with an inside war against Rosario the way he will against Castano.

What Castano has going against him in winning against Jermell is his inactivity. He’s not been the most active fighter since 2017, fighting just four times.

That’s not enough for Castano to have stayed sharp during the last four years, and it could be a problem for him going up against Jermell.