By Dan Ambrose: Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano will meet for their rematch on March 12th or 19th at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. They’d previously been scheduled for February 26th, but that is being pushed back to March.
Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs) will have his IBF, WBA, and WBC junior middleweight titles on the line when he faces WBO champion Castano (17-0-2, 12 KOs) in two months from now.
The location will still be in Houston, which will give the Texas native Charlo the advantage. Last July, Charlo fought Castano to a controversial draw in San Antonio, Texas, which many boxing fans felt that the Argentinian should have won.
Castano looked like the better fighter, but fighting in Texas may have arguably saved Jermell from a loss. Charlo struggled with Castano’s pressure on him, particularly in the second half of the fight.
Castano showed that Jermell is a limited fighter when he’s unable to score a knockout. He can be outboxed, but we already knew that with Tony Harrison defeating Charlo in their first fight in 2018.
In their rematch, Harrison probably would have beaten Jermell again if he didn’t get caught in the 11th round and taken out in December 2019.
At the end of the contest, the scoring was all over the place, with the judges turning in this odd set:
- 114-114
- 117-111 – Jermell
- 114-112 – Castano
The judge that scored it wide for Charlo at 117-111 was severely ridiculed by boxing fans, who wondered what was going through his mind to turn in this strange score.
This wasn’t the first time that Charlo was saved from a defeat. Charlo’s wins over Austin Trout, Vanes Martirosyan, and Gabe Rosado were questionable, with some boxing fans believing he was given gift decisions.
Jermell is a famous fighter, but he can be outboxed because he focuses too much on ambushing his opponents with single shots.
Instead of focusing on his boxing his opponents, Charlo tries to take them out with shots, but he doesn’t have the power to win consistently using that approach.
If Charlo wins the rematch with Castano, he could come undone when he faces puncher Tim Tszyu. If Charlo tries to slug with Tszyu, he could be asking for trouble.
Of course, Jermell’s management is skillful; they’ll be able to steer around Tszyu for many years to come by having him vacate the WBO title if he beats Castano to capture that strap.
Tszyu is ranked #1 with the World Boxing Organization, and he’s going to be looking to fight the winner.
It should be an exciting fight as long as the judges don’t ruin the rematch with their scoring. If you’re Castano, he should be thinking about trying to knockout Jermell because there’s a good chance we could see another oddly scored fight by the Texas judges.