Charlo, Castano battle to a draw
SAN ANTONIO — Houston native Jermell Charlo’s quest to become the first four-belt undisputed champion at 154 pounds was put on hold as he fought Brian Castano to a split-decision draw Saturday at the AT&T Center.
Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs) retains his WBC, WBA and IBA titles, while Castano (170-2, 12 KOs) remains the WBO champion following the super welterweight headliner of a Premier Boxing Champions event on Showtime.
Castano landed 173 punches to Charlo’s 151, including 164 power punches to Charlo’s 98.
“The draw, it wasn’t what I wanted to hear,” Charlo said in the ring following the bout. “If anything, I won this fight.”
Castano, too, expressed a disagreement with the outcome, saying through an interpreter that he felt he “won the fight, definitely.”
Charlo said trainer Derrick James told him in the corner after the ninth round that he needed a knockout, feeling behind on the scorecards. Castano seemed to control the fight through the middle rounds, coming forward aggressively to throw and land punches at higher rates.
Though Charlo unleashed a fury of strikes in the final three rounds, winning them in each judge’s view, he stopped short of securing a knockdown. The judges scored the fight 114-113 in favor of Castano, 117-111 in favor of Charlo, and a 114-114 draw.
Charlo and Castano’s bout marked the first time in history that all four belts at 154 pounds were on the line, with both attempting to become the first undisputed champion in the weight class since Winky Wright was a three-belt undisputed champion in 2004.
Charlo was fighting in Texas for the first time since 2015, when he defeated Joachim Alcine at NRG Arena in Houston.
In recent weeks, Charlo described Saturday as a “legacy fight” — one that could cement his place in history and earn him the elusive recognition as one of the world’s top poundfor-pound fighters.
After leaving the door open previously to a potential move up to 160 pounds, Charlo said this week that he plans to stay at 154 going forward.
Before Charlo and Castano took center stage, interim WBA lightweight world champion Rolando Romero (14-0, 12 KOs) remained unbeaten with a seventhround technical knockout of Anthony Yigit (24-2-1, 8 KOs).
In the first televised bout of the night, middleweight Amilcar Vidal (13-0, 11 KOs) remained undefeated with a majority decision victory over Immanuwel Aleem (183-2, 11 KOs).
Vidal landed a barrage of body shots through the bout, earning a 97-93 margin from two judges, with the third scoring the fight a draw at 95-95.