With a black cowboy hat atop of his head, Brian Castano stood in his locker room in dismay. The WBO super middleweight champion thought he did enough to win, and the overwhelming majority of the public agreed. Yet after 12 grueling rounds with Jermell Charlo for the undisputed 154-pound championship, the fight was declared a split draw.
“I feel that they robbed me,” Castano told ESPN in Spanish through a translator in July. “I’m not taking anything away from Charlo: he’s a big puncher, he caught me with some good punches at times, but I survived.”
Ten months after the first meeting, Charlo, owner of the WBC, IBF and WBA titles, and Castano will once again attempt to determine junior middleweight supremacy with Saturday’s rematch in Carson, California (9 p.m. ET, Showtime). The rematch was originally set for March 19, but it was postponed when Castano suffered a partially torn right biceps in sparring.
The first fight was action-packed and featured numerous ebbs and flows. Both Charlo and Castano were hurt at times. Castano applied relentless pressure behind a high guard, while Charlo looked to counter off the ropes.
Charlo is 1-0 in title rematches. Can he make the necessary adjustments to prosper in another return bout? Will Castano replicate his success in the first bout? Already, he scored a minor victory after Castano and his team pushed for the fight to land outside of Texas after they believed Charlo was the benefactor of a friendly hometown decision from the judges in San Antonio (Charlo is from Houston).
Beyond the two champions, a deep well of contenders (both young and established) wait in the wings for their own title opportunities. Fighters like Sebastian Fundora, Erickson Lubin and a rejuvenated Liam Smith are pushing for title opportunities sooner than later.
Before Charlo and Castano meet again, ESPN surveys the 154-pound landscape.
The unified champion, Jermell Charlo
Source : espn
