Notebook: Jermell Charlo eyes short- and long-term legacy against Castano
Undisputed junior middleweight title at stake Saturday
Jermell Charlo owns three of the four junior middleweight title belts and is focused on becoming the undisputed champion when he faces titlist Brian Castano in a rare four-belt unification fight in the main event of a Showtime-televised tripleheader on Saturday (9 p.m. ET) at the AT&T Center in San Antonio.
The winner will walk away as the first undisputed champion of the four-belt era in division history and will also become 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 champion in the three-belt era in 2004.
That is a big deal to Charlo, who sees a victory as very meaningful to how he is viewed both in terms of the here and now and in terms of his overall legacy. Please read my story about Charlo and this fight on The Ring magazine website here: https://www.ringtv.com/624326-jermell-charlo-says-this-fight-against-brian-castano-could-put-him-in-hall-of-fame/#.YPDedt39g_E.twitter
Bantamweight night on Showtime
The fight between bantamweight titlist John Riel Casimero and secondary titlist Guillermo Rigondeaux will headline a Showtime tripleheader in the 118-pound division at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, on Aug. 14 (10 p.m. ET), Premier Boxing Champions and the network announced.
Casimero was scheduled to fight Rigondeaux and then he stepped aside to allow Casimero to unify with Nonito Donaire. But when Donaire withdrew due to issues he had with Casimero’s drug testing and Team Casimero’s repeated insults toward his wife/manager/trainer Rachel Donaire, Rigondeaux wound up back in the fight.
Casimero (30-4, 21 KOs), 32, of the Philippines, will be making his second defense.
“I am very excited to be back on Showtime and fighting in Southern California where a lot of Filipino fans can come see me fight,” Casimero said. “I look forward to defending my title against Guillermo Rigondeaux. Rigondeaux is known to a lot of Filipino fans for beating my fellow countryman Nonito Donaire (in a junior featherweight title fight in 2013). I will show the boxing world how to beat Rigondeaux and send him into retirement.”
Rigondeaux (20-1, 13 KOs), 40, a Cuban southpaw and two-time Olympic gold medalist, who fights out of Miami, was a longtime junior featherweight titlist before moving down to bantamweight, where he won a vacant secondary belt by split decision over Liborio Solis in February 2020. This will be Rigondeaux’s first fight since.
“This is a big fight for me and my team because we have a chance to win that WBO title,” Rigondeaux said. “Although I’ve been out of the ring for well over a year I’m still in great shape and have plans to ruin Casimero’s dreams. I know he has a lot of power, but he’s fighting a man with excellent boxing skills and a high ring IQ. I’m going to box circles around Casimero. My trainer Ronnie Shields and I have been working on some new tricks, so don’t be surprised if I knock him out.”
In the co-feature, Antonio Russell (18-0, 12 KOs), 28, of Capitol Heights, Maryland, and the younger brother of featherweight titlist Gary Russell Jr., will step up his competition level and face former bantamweight titlist Emmanuel Rodriguez (19-2, 12 KOs), 28, of Puerto Rico, who has dropped two fights in a row, for a vacant interim bantamweight title.
In the opener, former bantamweight titlist and two-time U.S. Olympian Rau’shee Warren (18-3, 4 KOs), 34, of Cincinnati, will face fellow southpaw Damien Vazquez (15-2-1, 7 KOs), 24, of Las Vegas, in a 10-rounder.
Can-Wood added to Fight Camp
Xu Can will defend his secondary featherweight title for the third time when he faces Leigh Wood in a fight that as added on Friday to the Matchroom Fight Camp card on July 31 (DAZN) in Brentwood, England.
Can (18-2, 3 KOs), 27, of China, is promoted by Golden Boy, which made a deal with Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn for the fight. He is coming off a one-sided decision victory over Manny Robles III in November 2019 in Indio, California.
“I have been idled nearly 20 months without a fight," Can said. “In the past 5 months in Miami, my coach Pedro Diaz has worked me very hard. This is by far the best preparation for my title fights. I feel that I am in an excellent status, physically and mentally. Leigh Wood is a tough opponent to face and he also has the privileges to fight at home. I must devote 200 percent of efforts to keep my title.”
Wood (24-2, 14 KOs), 32, of England, who is trained by Ben Davison, bounced back from a 10-round majority decision loss to James Dickens in February 2020 to stop then-unbeaten Reece Mould in the ninth round this past February to win the vacant British featherweight title.
“Opportunities like this don’t always come around. I won’t need another,” Wood said. “I’m going to be world champion. He’s very good volume puncher. If you let him fight his fight, you’re in for a hard night. I know what I have to do, and I will be exchanging on my terms.”
The bout replaces women’s bantamweight titleholder Shannon Courtenay’s fight. Courtenay (7-1, 3 KOs) has been moved to the third week of Fight Camp on Aug. 14 and will face American Jamie Mitchell (6-0-2, 4 KOs).
The main attraction of the July 31 card is rising welterweight Conor Benn (18-0, 12 KOs) against Adrian Granados (21-8-3, 15 KOs).
‘Maravilla’ comeback continues
Former middleweight world champion and longtime pound-for-pound entrant Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez announced that he will continue his comeback by facing England’s Brian Rose on Sept. 18 in Madrid, Spain.
Also a former junior middleweight world titlist, Martinez (53-3-2, 30 KOs), 46, of Argentina, but with close ties in Spain, will be fighting for the third time since coming out of a six-year retirement in 2020. He had not fought since losing the middleweight title to Miguel Cotto by 10th-round stoppage, mainly due to a knee injury, in 2014 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Martinez’s two other comeback fights were also in Spain, a seventh-round knockout of Jose Miguel Fandino last August and a ninth-round knockout of Jussi Koivula in December.
On Thursday, he and Rose announced they would be fighting each other.
Rose (32-6-1, 8 KO), 36, of England, is coming off a six-round majority decision win over sub-.500 opponent Jose Clavero in March in Spain. In the biggest fight of his career, Rose, then the mandatory challenger, faced Demetrius Andrade for his junior middleweight world title at Barclays Center in New York in June 2014 and got knocked out in the seventh round of a one-sided fight.
Quick hits
Weights from San Antonio for the PBC tripleheader on Showtime: Jermell Charlo 153 pounds, Brian Castano 153.25 (for the undisputed junior middleweight title); Rolando Romero 135, Anthony Yigit 140.2 (Yigit was supposed to challenge for Romero’s interim lightweight title but was a whopping 5.2 pounds overweight. The fight will go on and Romero cannot lose the belt); Amilcar Vidal 161.5, Immanuwel Aleem 162.
Junior middleweight up-and-comer and 2016 U.S. Olympian Charles Conwell (15-0, 11 KOs), 23, of Cleveland, will face southpaw Mark DeLuca (27-2, 15 KOs), 33, of Whitman, Massachusetts, on the Showtime PPV undercard of the Jake Paul-Tyron Woodley fight on Aug. 29 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, which is also Paul’s home area. Conwell-DeLuca was originally scheduled on the Teofimo Lopez-George Kambosos Triller Fight Club PPV undercard on June 19, but the event was postponed when Lopez came down with Covid-19. The rescheduled Conwell-DeLuca bout was announced at a new conference in Cleveland on Thursday. Also announced for the card was junior welterweight Montana Love (15-0-1, 7 KOs), 26, a Cleveland southpaw, who will face an opponent to be named.
Promoter Frank Warren announced a card for Aug. 28 at Utlilita Arena, Birmingham, England, that will feature various regional title bouts. In the main event, Jason Cunningham will defend his European junior featherweight title while also challenging for Brad Foster’s British and Commonwealth titles. Also, Akeem Ennis-Brown defends his British and Commonwealth junior welterweight titles against Sam Maxwell and Anthony Cacace defends his British junior lightweight title versus Lyon Woodstock. Former light heavyweight world title challenger Anthony Yarde will also be on the card against an opponent to be named in a tune-up for a fall rematch with Lyndon Arthur.
Wasserman Boxing, which recently bought out German promoter Team Sauerland, announced it has signed three British fighters: southpaw flyweight Harvey Horn (8-0, 2 KOs), 25; female flyweight Chloe Watson, 21, a former amateur standout who is going pro; and 6-foot-8 heavyweight Matty Harris, 21, who will also turn pro with Wasserman.
Show and tell
The legendary Bernard Hopkins was the dominant middleweight champion of his time and one of the most dominant in boxing history. He had made 20 consecutive successful title defenses — still tied for the division record — when he was matched in a heavily hyped showdown with rising star and undefeated 2000 U.S. Olympian Jermain Taylor, who had appeared on Hopkins’ previous undercard as they were being steered toward each other. Would it be Hopkins’ experience or Taylor’s youth that would carry the day? After a very contentious build up they finally met at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and it was a very close, tactical fight. In the end, Taylor won by disputed split decision to claim the undisputed middleweight championship. I was ringside to cover the fight and had Taylor winning a close one. With the win, Taylor joined Hopkins as only the second fighter to hold all four major belts at the same time, and then he would beat Hopkins again by decision in an immediate rematch. The historic first fight took place on July 16, 2005 — 16 years ago on Friday. Here is an extremely rare site poster from the fight in my collection. It is a plastic-like duratran that hung in a lightbox at the MGM Grand during fight week.
Charlo-Castano photo: Amanda Westcott/Showtime
Any doubters, if for "Undisputed" they ran 15 rounder, Bhop doesn't goes home a champ?
Always good to see unification matches and this should be a good one. Taylor's back to back wins over Hopkins reminds me of GGG-Canelo and Kovalev-Ward. The champ got screwed or there wouldn't have been a second match but when there was the champ lost in a not disputed fight.