Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano will are still on for tonight after a bit of glove drama over Jermell’s gloves he intends on wearing for the fight at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. The fight will headline on Showtime Championship Boxing on a card that begins at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT.
Team Castano reportedly had objected to the gloves that IBF/WBA/WBC 154-lb champion Charlo (34-1, 18 KOs) would be wearing tonight, and there was talk of the fight not happening.
According to Dan Rafael, he’s been told the Charlo-Castano fight is still on for tonight. PBC hasn’t said any to the contrary, so that’s definitely a positive. If the fight were in doubt, they would be one of the first to make an announcement.
Castano’s team has told ESPN KNOCKOUT that they met with the promoter and confirmed that the fight WILL be taking place tonight. With that said, they’re going to keep an eye on Jermell’s gloves up until the moment he goes inside the ring.
Earlier, there was doubt whether Brian Castano would take the fight because he was unhappy about Jermell’s gloves.
Apparently, Team Castano objected to Jermell’s right gloves, which reportedly had a “balloon,” according to ESPN KNOCKOUT.
“Charlo’s right glove has a balloon (sic) and that glove cannot be approved, the commissioner gave us the reason at 3 in the afternoon, Charlo’s representative called Jermell’s coach, Derrick (James), they said that They could go in 2 hours and the Texas commissioner said yes, at 5, they came with a bodyguard, they threw out our translator and allowed Charlo to have a bodyguard and I never saw a thing like it in my life. So far there is no fight, it is not for money, with that glove we do not fight, our gloves are fine,” said Sebastian Contursi to ESPN Knockout.
Interesting that Charlo’s right glove would have a balloon in it. Presumably, the concern would be if the balloon popped? I don’t know. There’s something lost in the translation from Spanish to English.
The good news is the Charlo vs. Castano fight is now on for tonight, and we’ll get to see which of the see two warriors walks out of the ring as the new four-belt undisputed champion at 154.
For many casual boxing fans in the U.S, they’ve never seen or heard of Castano before. They only know of Charlo and believe it’s going to be an easy victory for him tonight.
Those fans could be in for a disappointment, though, as Castano has a talent, having beaten Errol Spence Jr in the amateurs and recently fighting to a 12 round draw against Erislandy Lara.
For all those concerned #CharloCastano is in jeopardy over a Charlo glove issue, a high ranking person involved in the fight just told me, “The fight is on. No chance it gets cancelled. Ignore the melodrama. It will be resolved.” #boxing
— Dan Rafael (@DanRafael1) July 17, 2021
A fight on tonight’s card that has gone under the radar for a log of boxing fans is the co-feature bout between unbeaten WBA interim lightweight champion Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero (13-0, 11 KOs) and Anthony Yigit (24-1, 8 KOs0.
Rolly Romero, 24, has a lot of talent and punching power. He’s someone that could play into the future for some huge fights at 135 against Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, and Vasily Lomachenko
Tonight’s fight will give many boxing fans a chance to get a glimpse of Rolly for the first time, and you could say it’s coming out party. He was originally supposed to fight Austin Dulay, but he was hurt in training and was replaced by Yigit.
Romero is a big puncher, and he ranks up there with Teofimo Lopez as being one of the powerful guys in the 135-lb weight class.