Last Saturday, July 17, 2021, the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas, witnessed one of the best fights of 2021 in Jermell Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs) vs. Brian Castaño (17-0-2, 12 KOs). It was a historic fight that ended up being overshadowed by bad scoring.
The Super Welterweight title unification bout ended up in a controversial draw that left boxing fans with a sour taste.
Scores were 114-114, 114-113 in favor of Castaño, and Nelson Vazquez’s absurd score of 117-111 in favor of Charlo.
During the fight, both Charlo and Castaño had their moments. Charlo hurt Castaño in the second round and he was about to knock him out in the 10th round; however, Castaño managed to survive those rounds, and he was able to control the majority of the middle rounds.
By Round 9 it looked like Castaño was ahead, so Charlo knew that he needed to close strong, and he did, winning the last three rounds on all the scorecards.
The vast majority of boxing fans and media felt like Castaño won, but everyone agrees that it was a close fight and that the draw wasn’t outrageous–still, Nelson Vasquez’s card was ridiculous.
After the fight, Jim Gray asked both fighters if they would like a rematch. While Castaño demanded the rematch, Charlo said that he needed to take some time to rest and “go back to the drawing board.”
Charlo’s answer gave us the feeling that he might not want the rematch right away, but if he stays at Super Welterweight, this rematch must take place because it was clear that they’re the best two fighters in their division.
The fact that we were able to watch the No. 1 and No. 2 of the division compete for all the belts, it’s something that should be celebrated by itself, and it’s easy to see why boxing fans would love to see a sequel.
The sequel most likely will happen considering that they both are PBC fighters, but the question will be when it will happen. There are four sanctioning bodies involved in this fight, so they all have to get on the same page and mandate an immediate rematch.
