By Mark Eisner: IBF/WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs) in the second half to earn a questionable 12 round split draw against WBO champion Brian Castano (17-0-2, 12 KOs) on Saturday night at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.
The scores were as follows:
- 114-113 – Castano
- 117-111 – Jermell
- 114-114
Boxing News 24 scored it 116-112 for Castano. He was the far busier fighter and dominated five of the first six rounds and 3 of the last 6.
Charlie hurt Castano in rounds two and ten but was unable to follow up due to his low work rate. Castano had Charlo badly hurt in the third and deserved credit for a knockdown when the ropes held Charlo up.
Early results for Charlo vs. Castano card:
- WBA interim lightweight champion Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero (14-0, 12 KOs) thrashed his replacement opponent Anthony Yigit (24-2, 8 KOs) in stopping him in the seventh round of a scheduled 12 round fight. The heavy-handed Romero, 24, dropped Yigit three times in the contest. He put Yigit down in round five and twice more in the seventh. The referee docked Rolly Romero a point for hitting on the break in the fifth. In the seventh, Romero knocked Yigit down. When he got back up, Rolly threw him to the canvas. When the action resumed, Rolly knocked Yigit down for the second time in the round. The referee then halted the contest. Despite it being a sloppy performance by Rolly Romero, you had to like his punching power. His power is extraordinary, but his footwork and defense need a lot of work. Also, the roughhouse tactics that Rolly used were unnecessary, and he needs to change that style of fighting soon.
- Middleweight prospect Amilcar Vidal (13-0, 11 KOs) stayed unbeaten with a hard-fought 10 round majority decision over Immanuwel Aleem (18-3-2, 11 KOs). The scores were 97-93, 97-93, and 95-95. Boxing News 24 scored it 95-95. The heavy-handed Vidal gassed out in the second half of the contest, and he let Aleem come back to get the better of him the last four rounds. The two judges that scored it for Vidal were obviously impressed with Vidal’s bodywork and the hard punches he was landing. However, Vidal wasn’t consistent, and he allowed Aleem to outwork him for long stretches of the fight.
- Undefeated junior middleweight contender Bakhram Murtazaliev (19-0, 14 KOs) defeated Khiary Gray (16-6, 12 KOs) by an eight round unanimous decision. The judges scored it 79-73, 79-73, 78-74.
Preview
Jermell, 31, believes a victory tonight will put him in the Hall of Fame, but he could be wrong.
Before Jermell can join alongside the greats like Sugar Ray Leonard, Robert Duran, and Marvin Hagler, he’s got to do more than becoming the undisputed champion at 154.
Somehow, Jermell beating Castano tonight just doesn’t do it for me to consider him a Hall of Fame-worthy candidate. You got to do more than that.
That’s like voting someone into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame after they hit 40 home runs for two or three seasons. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Ty Cobb would be turning over in their graves if it became a piece of cake to get in the Hall.
Does Jermell deserve to be in the Hall of Fame?
If Jermell had to run through a gauntlet of a murderer’s row of talented fighters to unify the junior middleweight division, you could say he deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame. That hasn’t happened.
If Charlo wins tonight, he will have beaten these three fighters to become the undisputed champion at 154:
- Tony Harrison
- Jeison Rosario
- Brian Castano
Getting into the Hall of Fame has nothing to do with becoming an undisputed champion in any one division.
It’s more about the level of opposition a fighter faces, and thus far, Jermell hasn’t fought enough quality guys to be viewed as being worthy of the Hall of Fame in my view.
Unless the HOF committee lowers the standards for what it takes to get in, Charlo needs to go back to the drawing board and push his management at PBC to match him against fighters like Gennadiy Golovkin, Demetrius Andrade, Canelo Alvarez, Errol Spence Jr, Tim Tszyu, and Terence Crawford.
“This could be the fight that puts (me) in the Hall of Fame,” Charlo said. “I mean, I won the world title in the same weight division with my brother. That was a legacy moment.”
Boxing News 24 will be live updates for the card and giving them below.
The ambitious IBF/WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Charlo (34-1, 19 KOs) comes into tonight’s fight with WBO belt-holder Castano (17-0-1, 12 KOs) needing his title to become the undisputed champion.
Charlo has collected his three world titles at 154 in just a year and a half, and he’s now on the verge of finishing what he started in December 2019.
It will be a little more difficult for Jermell to win the last belt tonight because Castano, 31, is a more solid fighter than Tony Harrison and Jeison Rosario, the two guys that Charlo captured his world titles from.
Can Jermell Charlo beat Brian Castano?
With the hype surrounding Jermell, 31, after his wins over Tony Harrison, Jeison Rosario, and Jorge Cota, he’s expected to steam through Castano like he’s nothing tonight. Whether Jermell can do that is quite another thing.
If you do your research carefully on Jermell’s past fights, he’s struggled when fighting guys that have a good chin, can punch, and have a strong ring IQ.
We witnessed Jermell lose to Harrison in their first fight in 2018, and he had a devil of a time with him in the rematch before scoring a stoppage in the 11th in December 2019. That wasn’t that long ago.
Since winning back his WBC title from Harrison, Jermell has fought just once, beating IBF/WBA champion Jeison Rosario by an eighth round knockout last September.
Before you get excited about Charlo’s win over Rosario, you need to realize that this guy had been stopped in the sixth round by Nathaniel Gallimore in 2017.
Just recently, Erickson Lubin knocked out Rosario in the sixth round last month on June 26th.
Castano has a 12 round draw against Erislandy Lara in 2019, and wins over Patrick Teixeira, Wale Omotoso, Cedric Vitu and Michel Soro. In terms of resumes, Charlo has faced much better guys.
With that said, Castano’s performance against Lara outshines anything Charlo has done during his career because none of his opponents can hold a candle to Erislandy. Charlo has faced no one that could beat Lara.
So to answer the question of whether Jermell can beat Brian Castano, I don’t know that he can. Castano is the better fighter on paper, and he would have never lost to Tony Harrison as Jermell did.
At Friday’s weigh-in, Charlo looked incredibly angry during the face-off with Castano. It was a clear attempt by Jermell to intimidate Castano, which he does with all of his opponents.
At this level, those tricks don’t work. If Castano didn’t come from such a great amateur background in Argentina, Jermell’s mind tricks might have worked, but not in this case. It was a waste of time for Jermell.
Where to watch Charlo vs. Castano
Boxing fans can watch Charlo vs. Castano on Showtime Championship Boxing at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT.
Other fights on the Charlo vs. Castano card:
- Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero vs. Anthony Yigit
- Amilcar Vidal vs. Immanuwel Aleem
WBA interim lightweight champion Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero (13-0, 11 KOs) puts his unbeaten record on the line against the brave replacement opponent Anthony Yigit (24-1, 8 KOs) in a 12 round fight.
Yigit missed last Friday by coming in five lbs over the 135-lb limit at 140 lbs, but he’d taken the fight on one week’s notice.
As a result of Yigit coming in overweight, he won’t have the chance to fight for Rolly’s WBA interim 135-lb title tonight. If Yigit is victorious, the WBA interim title will fall vacant.
In the first fight on the televised Showtime’s card tonight, the powerful middleweight prospect Amilcar Vidal (12-0, 11 KOs) will take on the capable Immanuewel Aleem (18-2-2, 11 KOs) in a 10 round bout.
Showtime is televising Jermell Charlo vs. Brian Castano tonight at 9:00 p.m. ET for their undisputed 154 lbs [junior middleweight] undisputed championship with all the belts up for grabs at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.