The first 154-pound undisputed championship fight in the four-belt era lived up its promise in terms of drama and competitiveness. Even that, unfortunately, couldn’t save Jermell Charlo and Brian Castaño from seeing their efforts marred by questionable scoring.
Castano (17-0-2), the reigning WBO champion, was forced to settle for a controversial split draw on Saturday after largely outboxing Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs) before holding off a late rally inside AT&T Center in San Antonio.
Judge Tim Cheatham scored it 114-114 and Steve Weisfeld had it 114-113 in favor of Castaño. But Nelson Vasquez turned in a head scratcher of 117-111 for Charlo, which allowed him to retain his WBA, WBC and IBF titles. CBS Sports had it 116-112, also for Castaño.
Despite what appeared to be a lack of urgency midway through the fight as Charlo, the 31-year-old counter puncher, was far too selective in his output, the native of Houston picked up the pace considerably over the final three rounds. Charlo hurt Castaño in Round 10 but couldn’t drop or finish him, which led most to believe Castaño, a 31-year-old native of Argentina, had done enough.
Castaño outlanded Charlo over 12 rounds by a margin of 173 to 151, according to CompuBox, including 164 to 98 in power shots.
“The draw wasn’t what I wanted to hear. If anything, I won this fight,” Charlo said. “Brian Castaño is a tough warrior. He is going to give a lot of people problems but like I said, my power is serious in this division.
“My coach told me I needed a knockout and I just knew he knew that he was talking about. I trust him. This is the first time something like this happened to me.”
Although the instructions down the stretch from trainer Derrick James, telling Charlo he needed a knockout to win, seemed to be on point, the trend of becoming too patient while looking to end the fight with one shot has followed Charlo for years. His low output was a major theme in his disputed decision loss to Tony Harrison in 2018 and Charlo appeared to be down on the scorecards late in their rematch one year later before scoring a late finish.
CBS Sports was with you throughout the entire way on Saturday, so be sure to follow along with the live results and highlights below.
Fight card, results Jermell Charlo (c) vs. Brian Castaño (c) ends in split decision draw (114-113, 117-111, 114-114) Rolando Romero def. Anthony Yigit via seventh-round TKO Amilcar Vidal def. Immanuwel Aleem via majority decision (95-95, 97-93, 97-93)
