Home » Latest » TRENDING NOW » Charlo vs Castano HIGHLIGHTS: July 17, 2021 | PBC on SHOWTIME

Charlo vs Castano HIGHLIGHTS: July 17, 2021 | PBC on SHOWTIME

4

InfoSearched 24 0 TRENDING NOW

7.5

SaveSavedRemoved 2

Boxing’s first undisputed champion at 154 pounds would have to wait another night.

Jermell Charlo and Brian Castaño delivered exactly the kind of fight their unification bout promised, twelve brutal rounds that ended in a split draw nobody in the AT&T Center saw coming from all three judges. The two best junior middleweights on the planet traded the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO straps for a full 36 minutes and walked away with the exact same titles they carried in.

• Charlo (34-1, 18 KOs) and Castaño (17-0-1, 12 KOs) fought to a 12-round split decision draw on July 17, 2021, at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, live on SHOWTIME.
• Judge Steve Weisfeld scored it 114-113 for Castaño, Tim Cheatham had it 114-114, and Nelson Vazquez turned in a lopsided 117-111 card for Charlo that drew heavy criticism.
• Because of the draw, neither man became the first undisputed 154-pound champion since Ronald “Winky” Wright beat Shane Mosley in 2004, and both retained their respective belts.

A Fight Built on Contrasting Styles

This was never going to be a feel-out fight, and it wasn’t. Castaño pressed forward from the opening bell, walking Charlo down and pinning him against the ropes with the kind of relentless, high-volume attack that had made him unbeaten heading into San Antonio. Charlo answered the way he always has, waiting for openings and firing back with the type of counter left hook that has ended fights before.

That hook showed up early. Charlo stunned and backed up Castaño in the second round with a clean counter shot, a moment that looked, for a beat, like it might change the entire complexion of the fight. Castaño absorbed it, reset, and kept coming, burying his head and shoulders into Charlo’s body on the inside and refusing to let the champion find comfortable range.

Charlo’s Late Surge

As the rounds piled up, Castaño’s pressure and body work never let up, but Charlo kept finding the left hook when it mattered most. He hurt Castaño again late in the fight, a reminder of the kind of one-punch power that had carried him to 18 knockouts as champion. It wasn’t enough to put Castaño away, but it was enough to make three judges see three very different fights.

Weisfeld had it 114-113 for Castaño. Cheatham called it 114-114. Vazquez scored it 117-111 for Charlo.

That spread of scorecards became the story of the night almost as much as the action itself. A six-round swing between the widest and narrowest cards for the same 12-round fight is rare at this level, and Vazquez’s tally in particular drew immediate scrutiny from ringside commentators watching the same fight everyone else did.

No Undisputed Champion, No Consensus Winner

The division hadn’t had a single, unified ruler since Wright dethroned Mosley back in 2004, and Charlo-Castaño was billed all week as the fight to finally end that 17-year gap in the four-belt era. Instead, the draw left the WBA, WBC and IBF belts with Charlo and the WBO strap with Castaño, exactly where they started. Both fighters left the ring believing they’d done enough to win outright, which is about as predictable an outcome as a split draw can produce.

For readers who follow how public figures handle contested moments in the spotlight, the aftermath of a result this close tends to play out in interviews and press conferences the way it does anywhere else in sports — see how certain athletes have handled pointed questions from reporters for a sense of how these moments get litigated in real time. And for context on how controversial officiating decisions get picked apart afterward, the reaction to Vazquez’s card echoed the kind of scrutiny reporters and commentators have faced when their public calls don’t match what everyone else saw.

Charlo and Castaño both made clear afterward they wanted the rematch, and given how the cards broke down — one judge for each guy and one dead-even scorecard — there’s no argument for skipping it. Whenever that second fight gets made, it’s the one that settles who actually deserved to have their hand raised in San Antonio.