Charlo, Castano fight to disputed draw, meaning no undisputed champion crowned
154-pound titleholders produce all-action battle
So much for there being an undisputed junior middleweight champion, because there is most definitely a dispute.
Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano did their part, colliding in an effort to unify all four major sanctioning organization belts and waging a highly entertaining battle on Saturday night in a Showtime-televised main event at the AT&T Center in San Antonio.
The judges, however, could not agree and the fight was ruled a split draw with both men retaining the belts.
Judge Steve Weisfeld scored the fight 114-113 for Castano, who seemed to control much of the fight until running into problems in the final few rounds, and Tim Cheatham had it 114-114. But Nelson Vazquez had the outlier score that will be heavily criticized — 117-111 for Charlo, who retained his Ring/WBC/IBF/WBA title while Castano retained the WBO belt.
Charlo won the 10th, 11th and 12th rounds on all three scorecards to secure the draw.
They were vying to become the first undisputed champion of the four-belt era in division history and the first undisputed champion at 154 pounds in 17 years — since then-IBF titlist Winky Wright pulled the upset decision against WBC/WBA counterpart Shane Mosley to become the undisputed three-belt champion in 2004.
Also at stake was for a winner to emerge as just the sixth male boxer of the four-belt era to be an undisputed world champion. But the draw scrubbed that and left the club as five-man crew of junior welterweight Josh Taylor, who did it by outpointing Jose Ramirez in May, cruiserweight Oleksandr Usyk (2018), junior welterweight Terrence Crawford (2017) and middleweights Jermain Taylor (2005) and Bernard Hopkins (2004).
When the fight was over Castano and Charlo both were disappointed with the draw, claimed victory and said they were interested in a rematch. Please read my full story on The Ring magazine website here: https://www.ringtv.com/624389-thrilling-jermell-charlo-brian-castano-fight-ends-in-unsatisfying-draw/#.YPO4E8YYfpw.twitter
Romero, Vidal win on undercard
Rolando “Rolly” Romero predicted he would knock out late replacement opponent Anthony Yigit in the first round.
Although Romero did not cash in on his call, he did score three knockdowns en route to a dominating seventh-round knockout in the co-feature
Romero was supposed to defend his WBA interim lightweight belt against Yigit and while Romero was right on the 135-pound division limit at Friday’s weigh-in Yigit was a shocking 140.2 — 5.2 pounds overweight. Yigit paid an undisclosed amount of money for the fight to go on and was ineligible to claim the interim belt and Romero could not lose it.
“I fought a tough guy who wasn’t in my weight class,” said Romero, before calling out Gervonta Davis. “I fought a 140-pounder and I fucking stopped him. Simple as that.”
In the opener, up-and-coming middleweight Amilcar Vidal outslugged Immanuwel Aleem to win a competitive and ferocious majority decision.
Vidal got the nod 97-93 on two scorecards with the third judge scoring the fight 95-95 in a fight that took a few rounds to get going before it erupted into an all-out slugfest. Please read my story on the undercard on The Ring magazine website here: https://www.ringtv.com/624381-rolando-romero-scores-dominant-seventh-round-knockout-of-anthony-yigit/#.YPOgEQ-18pg.twitter
Photos: Amanda Westcott/Showtime
Castano won - clearly. Not much else to say, apart from to wish the 117 judge is held to account.
Great fight. A draw was not a outrageous outcome. Charlo pulled it together for the last three rounds, 117-111 was a bad card though. In my book Castano gets the nod.