Jermell Charlo: I’ll knock him [Castano] out in a rematch’

Jermell Charlo says he’s going to knock out Brian Castano when/if the two fight in a rematch. Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs) was exposed by WBO junior middleweight champion Castano (17-0-2, 12 KOs) last Saturday night in a fight that was ruled a 12 round split draw at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.

All four belts were on the line for their undisputed 154-lb championship, but the outcome of the fight failed to provide a winner. The only thing the fight established was that Castano is a better fighter than Charlo, and the judging was sourly lacking in common sense.

IBF/WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Charlo says he’s going to be more active in the rematch with Castano if there is one.

There definitely needs to be a second fight because there are too many boxing fans that felt that Castano was robbed by the judges. The fans weren’t listening to Jermell claim victory.

His words were lost on the fans, as they actually had their eyes open and saw Castano get the better of Jermell through three-fourths of the contest.

Castano did an amazing job of forcing Charlo against the ropes repeatedly and blasting away at him with combinations. No matter how hard Charlo tried to keep the action in the center of the ring, he would retreat to the ropes under the pressure from Castano.

“I possibly do, I think I knock him out in a rematch,” said Jermell Charlo to Fighthype in talking about Castano. “I’ll be way more active, way more stronger and my confidence will be on a whole another level,” said Charlo.

It sounds great what Charlo says about how he’s going to be improved for the rematch, but why didn’t he do it last Saturday? You could see that Jermell was trying to make adjustments, but no matter what he did, Castano was already ready for him.

It took Charlo ages to make adjustments, and as soon as he did, Castano would negate them. That’s why it’s hard to believe the rematch will be any different. For Charlo to improve, he would have to change his entire game, which would require stamina, which he doesn’t have, and a great chin. Charlo doesn’t possess that either.

“I do believe I won the fight, I don’t believe it was that close,” said Charlo, with his twin brother, middleweight champion Jermall, nearby at the post-fight news conference. “I should be undisputed right now.”

Charlo would be an undisputed champion in his dreams, but not in reality. The one judge that turned in a wacky 117-111 scorecard believed in Jermell, but his scoring for the fight had no basis in reality.

I hate to break this to Jermell but he didn’t win the fight, and maybe the only one that thought he did was his trainer Derrick James. It takes more than Charlo saying he won for him to be viewed as the winner.

“I will take a rematch. I don’t know when, but I would love to get back in there with him,” said Jermell.

It would be better for Charlo to take a couple of tune-up fights to get his confidence back and work on how to deal with pressure fighters like Castano. If Charlo takes an immediate rematch with Castano, he’ll lose, provided the judges don’t turn in another set of wacky scores.

Charlo would be better to make a defense of his WBC belt against Erickson Lubin next or Bakhram Murtazaliev.

If Jermell fights those guys, he’ll have time to look back at his fight with Castano and make the proper adjustments needed for him to win the rematch.

There are some good fights out there for Jermell to take right now, and he should think about taking them rather than facing Castano again.