Jermell Charlo’s trainer: The fight wasn’t close, Castano was trying to steal rounds

By Boxing News - 07/19/2021 - Comments

By Jeff Aronow: Jermell Charlo’s trainer Derrick James surprisingly says his undisputed 154-lb clash against Brian Castano wasn’t even a close fight because the WBO champion was missing his shots and trying to steal the rounds at the end with a burst of activity.

Derrick feels that his fighter IBF/WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs) should have had his hand raised at the end of their bout last Saturday night at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.

The judges scored the Charlo vs. Castano fight a 12 round split draw for the record, meaning no undisputed champion was awarded from the fight.

Interestingly, Derrick is now coming out saying the fight wasn’t even close, considering that he told his fighter Jermell that he needed a knockout to win the fight going into the 10th round.

While Jermell hurt WBO 154-lb champion Castano (17-0-2, 12 KOs) with a big left hook counter in the tenth round, he didn’t drop him. Castano finished the round on his feet and held his own through the eleventh and twelfth rounds against a desperate Charlo.

Charlo’s trainer says the fight wasn’t close

“I think [Jermell] should’ve thrown more jabs, been a little busier, but every time we threw the shots, we were hurting him,” said Charlo’s trainer Derrick James to Fighthub.

Image: Jermell Charlo's trainer: The fight wasn't close, Castano was trying to steal rounds

I felt like, ‘was it close?’ No, he [Brian Castano] was trying to steal the rounds; he really wasn’t doing anything,” said Derrick sounding like a trainer trying his best to whitewash what had happened inside the ring.

In a way, Derrick is correct about the Charlo vs. Castano fight not being a close one but for the narrative that he’s trying to peddle to the public. And Castano appeared to win nine of twelve rounds, which should have resulted in him winning the contest by a 117-111 score.

Castano didn’t get knocked down by Jermell in the second or tenth rounds, which is when he had been hurt by shots.

As such, you can’t score those two rounds 10-8, as some boxing fans believe.

If you’re going to score the fight that way, then round three should have been 10-8 in Castano’s favor because he badly hurt Charlo, knocking him into the ropes, which held him up. The referee should have ruled that as a knockdown.

Castano was missing with his shots, says Derrick

“He really was missing all those shots, but it was like for the judges behind him, made it look like he was busy and landing shots,” said Derrick about Castano. “He landed some but not as many as they thought he did.”

Image: Jermell Charlo's trainer: The fight wasn't close, Castano was trying to steal rounds

“The power was an issue,” said James on why Castano didn’t throw as many shots as he normally does.

“The respect and the power was a big deal [on why Castano didn’t use employ his normal high-volume attacking style against Jermell].

“I think when he was getting hit with them shots, it was hurting him a lot too,” Derrick about his view that Castano wasn’t handling the power well from Charlo.

Again, Derrick is way off with his observation of what took place last Saturday night. Castano was landing shots and quite a few of them and with better accuracy than Jermell.

You can understand why a trainer like Derrick would want to paint a different picture of the fight than the one that transpired because it’s hard to face the reality of what happened.

It’s difficult for trainers to step back and admit that their fighter wasn’t good enough and had failed as a team.

The fact that Derrick isn’t admitting what happened to Jermell is troubling, as it suggests that he doesn’t understand that his guy was in over his head.

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When you have a trainer who views a warped reality of what they wished had happened, they are no help to their fighters. If you’re Charlo, he needs a better trainer if his guy Derrick can’t see the reality of what took place.

How can Derrick help Jermell win a rematch with Castano if he’s under the false illusion that he should have won by a lopsided decision? Charlo needs a trainer who can see what did happen, not what he wished had happened.