Castano says Jermell will ‘avoid’ the rematch

By Boxing News - 07/18/2021 - Comments

By Allan Fox:  Brian Castano outfought favorite Jermell Charlo over 12 rounds last Saturday night but had to settle for a 12 round split draw at the end of their undisputed 154–lb champion at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. Castano (17-0-2, 12 KOs) said he wants an immediate rematch with Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs), but he doubts that’ll happen. He thinks Jermell, 31, will choose to avoid fighting him again after the problems he gave him.

Although Castano looked like he’d done more than enough, the judges weren’t in agreement. The judges scored it 114-113 Castano, 117-111 Jermell, and 114-114 even.

Surprisingly, the judge [Nelson Vazquez] that scored the fight 117-111 in favor of Jermell had him winning five of the first six rounds of the contest.

That’s hard to understand, though; the first half of the fight is where Castano was at his best, seemingly winning every round but the second.

This judge had things backward, giving Charlo five of the first six rounds. Castano won only three rounds in the entire fight, according to judge Vazquez, which is inexplicable.

Image: Castano says Jermell will 'avoid' the rematch

The outcome of their fight was highly controversial, as many boxing fans, the crowd at ringside included, felt that Castano had done more than enough to warrant a 12 round decision.

However, Charlo was the A-side fighter, the network guy, and fighting in his home state of Texas. With everything essentially in Jermell’s favorite, a draw in a fight that he lost in the eyes of fans was a predictable outcome.

Going into the contest, many boxing fans believed that WBO junior middleweight champion Castano, 31, needed a knockout to win because they felt he would never be given a decision over the popular IBF/WBA/WBC 154lb champion Charlo. As things turned out, the fans were correct. Castano couldn’t win, and it’s another black eye for the sport.

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I think he will try to avoid [the rematch],” Castano said to Mike Coppinger at ESPN after the fight. “He will probably come up with something else. But in reality, it is me who is going to give him the rematch. If he doesn’t want it, OK. We move on to the next fight.”

With the heavy criticism that the fans leveled at Jermell after the contest, it isn’t easy to imagine him not agreeing to a rematch with Castano.

For Charlo to walk away from the fight without running it back would mean he’s giving up on his dream of becoming the undisputed 154-lb champion. In effect, that would be his way of saying he lacks the confidence that he would win the second fight.

Image: Castano says Jermell will 'avoid' the rematch

At this point, it’s still too early to know if Charlo and his management at PBC will give Castano a rematch. There’s more to it than just putting the fight together. The 31-year-old Jermell might need to make a defense one of his mandatory challengers from his three world titles at 154.

If that’s the case, Jermell will need to delay the rematch with Castano until 2022.

One of the drawbacks for champions holding more than one world title at a time is that they have to make mandatory defenses, which gets in the way of them setting up bigger fights the fans want to see.

Surprisingly, Castano was the one that crowds cheered afterward rather than the home fighter Jermell, who is from Texas.

Before the fight started, Jermell was the one that had the fans at the AT&T Center cheering him, but in the end, they were booing him loudly, showing that they felt he didn’t deserve a draw.

“I feel that they robbed me,” said Castano. “I’m not taking anything away from Charlo. He’s a big puncher. He caught me with some good punches at times, but I survived, and overall, I thought I won the fight.”

Castano applied pressure on Jermell throughout the contest, backing him up against the ropes and landing many shots on him. Even in the center of the ring, Castano was outworking Charlo.

After the fight, Jermell’s trainer Derrick James claimed that Castano only fought well when he had Charlo against the ropes.