Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano will be running it back for a rematch in three months from now in an undisputed championship at 154 on February 26th on Showtime. The fight will be taking place in Charlo’s hometown at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
For the Charlo-Castano II rematch to take place, Charlo’s IBF mandatory Bakhram Murtazaliev and Castano’s WBO mandatory Tim Tszyu will step aside.
It’s not ideal potentially for either of them because the winner of the Charlo vs. Castano fight will need to pick one of those two to defend against next.
With all four titles about to be consolidated going to one champion, it’s going to require Tszyu or Murtazaliev to win a little longer before they get their title shot.
Charlo and Castano have agreed to terms for the rematch of their previous fight last summer, which ended in a controversial 12 round majority draw in San Antonio, Texas
Like last time the two met in July, IBF/WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs) and WBO champion Castano (17-0-2, 12 KOs) will have all four titles on the line for the undisputed clash.
Assuming we don’t see another 12 round draw, the Charlo vs. Castano II match will determine who the #1 fighter is in the 154-lb division.
The scoring for the previous Jermell vs. Castano fight saw these scores:
- 114-114
- 117-111 – Jermell
- 114-113 – Castano
Boxing 247 scored it for Castano 116-112. It wasn’t close, but the fight was in Texas, so it wasn’t surprising that it was scored a draw, given that Jermell was fighting at home.
Bringing it back to that state will give Charlo a considerable advantage, but hopefully, the judges score it correctly so that they don’t tarnish the sport.
Charlo was given favorable scoring in the final three rounds to save him from a defeat.
“I do believe I won the fight; I don’t believe it was that close,” said Charlo last July after his controversial draw against Castano. “I should be undisputed right now.”
You can argue that Castano should have been the undisputed champion last time and the scoring wildly off. With the crowd backing Charlo to the hilt. It’s possible that the noise influenced the judges, which may have affected how they scored the fight.
Bringing the rematch back to Texas is a questionable move on the event organizer’s part because it’s putting Castano in a position where he may need a knockout to win if we get similar scoring as last time.
“I feel that they robbed me,” Castano said. “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, and overall, I thought I won the fight.”
It looked like Castano dominated most of the fight and did the better work in the championship rounds when Jermell gassed out.