reposting from last thread not convinced with charlo i've never thought he's good and i was going to rate him based on his fight with castano but he fought like shit and i thought castano did the better work and should have won. i think castano will win again. charlo doesn't handle fighting off the ropes well and castano will make sure to back him up as always.
>Undisputed champions are a rarity in boxing, and the feat is only getting harder to accomplish with the proliferation of titles. After Bernard Hopkins became the first man to unify boxing’s ‘Big Four’ sanctioning belts in 2004, and Jermain Taylor’s brief stint following Hopkins, we had to wait twelve long years before another fighter achieved the same status. But since 2017 we’ve had a relative deluge of four-belt mega fights, as first Terence Crawford, then Oleksandr Usyk, Teofimo Lopez (the WBC Franchise nonsense notwithstanding), and Josh Taylor were each crowned as undisputed kings of their division.
>On Saturday night, at the AT&T Arena in San Antonio, Texas, we came within touching distance of adding another name to that distinguished list, as Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano fought for the right to be the first “undisputed” champ at 154 pounds since Winky Wright earned the distinction in 2004, and the first ever to hold all four belts. After twelve hard-fought rounds though, a split draw verdict means both men retained their titles, and to crown another undisputed king we will have to wait for a rematch.
>For Castaño, the judges’ verdict was surely a bitter pill to swallow. It was also his second split draw in four fights, having reached the same outcome against Erislandy Lara in March 2019. Two wins followed for the Argentinian, including a wide unanimous decision over Patrick Teixeira to capture the WBO title in February this year. The undefeated champion came in as the less experienced pro, with a 17-0-1 ledger, but a glance at Castaño’s impressive amateur wins over Errol Spence and Sergiy Derevyanchenko showed he was clearly not to be underestimated.
Angel Morgan
>Charlo, now 34-1-1, came in off the back of two of his most significant wins to date, gaining revenge for a bitterly disputed decision loss to Tony Harrison by eleventh-round stoppage, and then scoring an impressive knockout over Jeison Rosario to unify the WBC, WBA and IBF belts last September. The Texas native went in as a significant favourite, reaching as much as -300 with some Vegas odds makers, while Castaño started as a live +200 underdog. Tensions threatened to boil over at a heated weigh-in, as both camps had to be separated to prevent an all-out brawl. Thankfully, the fighters themselves kept their cool as they faced off, Charlo snarling intensely and Castaño smiling calmly, two contrasting characters looking equally focused on the task ahead.
>It got heated at the weigh-in. With the stage set perfectly for an historic clash, the fight itself did not disappoint. From the first round the styles blended beautifully to produce an excellent contest, with two factors proving pivotal as the action unfolded. The first and most obvious was the battle for control of distance, as the shorter and stockier Castaño – standing 5’7 ½” to Charlo’s 5’11” and with a 5 ½” disadvantage in reach – sought to constantly close the gap to land his shorter punches, while Charlo attempted to dictate from range with the jab and land sharp counters on the inside. The second, equally crucial factor, was each fighter’s ability to hurt the other man once their preferred punching range had been established.
>In the opening round it was Castaño who commanded where the action took place with his more aggressive, busier work rate, as Charlo tried to time him with single counter left hooks off the ropes. They missed in the first round, but the strategy paid off in round two as Jermell landed a hard left clean on the button, visibly hurting Castaño for the first time, before working well from a distance behind his longer punches.
Jayden Torres
>Charlo used the distance effectively again in the third to keep Castaño at bay. But with only seconds on the clock, and just when it looked like the round was in the bag, the Argentine unloaded a barrage, rocking the American with two big left hooks. Charlo stayed upright, but Castaño stole the round and seized the momentum in the fight.
>With his confidence restored, Castaño dictated the terms over the next few rounds, as he continued to close the distance effectively, back Charlo up to the ropes, and outwork his man with combinations. Charlo kept the action competitive and worked well at times behind his jab, and his left hook counters continued to pose a danger even when he was losing the battle at close quarters, but the Argentinian had a two round lead on my card at the halfway point.
>By the eighth, it looked like Castaño’s busier work rate was pulling him further ahead, with a lovely short right hand finding its home. Charlo had his moments too, but he just wasn’t letting his hands go enough. According to CompuBox, after eight rounds Castaño had thrown more shots than Charlo in five of them, and landed more in seven of them. The official cards reflected the stats, with judges Steven Weisfeld and Tim Cheatham having Castaño in the lead by six rounds to two and five rounds to three, respectively, while judge Nelson Vazquez – somehow, incredibly – had Charlo in a 6-2 lead.
>Between the ninth and tenth, head trainer Derrick James pleaded with Charlo, “More jabs, more jabs! Back him up, back him down!” Taking the advice and looking refocused, Charlo started the tenth behind a solid jab and then found the big shot needed to turn the tide. As Castaño pressed forward and landed a nice left hook and right hand, Charlo exploded off the ropes with a peach of a left that shook Castaño and drove him back. With the Argentine on wobbly legs and looking hurt for the first time since the second, Charlo pursued and unloaded hooks
Julian Flores
>Charlo’s power punching had finally shifted the momentum back in his favour, and he took the eleventh as well, though Castaño fought back gamely after his torrid tenth. Still, going into the final round, the instruction for Charlo from Derrick James was unequivocal: “You gotta knock him out!” Both men landed heavy blows as they fought fiercely in the final round, but it was Charlo getting through with the slightly more eye-catching punches. He took the round and swept the last three on all of the judges’ scorecards, and with the late surge eked out a split draw.
>Given that it was such a closely contested battle in which both men had clear moments of ascendency, the draw overall seemed a reasonable result. But it must be said that if either fighter could feel aggrieved at the verdict, it has to be Castaño. A closer look at the numbers showed that he was the more active and accurate boxer, throwing and landing more overall (173 of 586 compared to Charlo’s 151 of 533), and out-landing Charlo in eight of the twelve rounds. Sadly, more significant to the final outcome was judge Nelson Vazquez’s unfathomable scorecard: he had Charlo winning 117-111, or 9-3 in rounds, a disgraceful score and one which ignored the effort Castaño put forward.
>Judge Weisfeld’s 114-113 card in Castaño’s favour (7-5 in rounds, with one 10-8 round for Charlo) seemed the fairest assessment, although judge Cheatham’s 114-114 card was also understandable. Veteran Showtime commentator Al Bernstein seemed to capture the mood best, when he said, “No one should be outraged over the draw [but] you can be outraged at the 117-111 scorecard for Charlo. That was absurd. But the idea that this fight ended up being a draw is not an outrage. It was close.”
>Indeed. And now there is really only one way to settle who is the true champion at 154 pounds: an immediate rematch.
You got heemed? i did fine against everyone my level but one guy I did 3 rounds with was boxing for nearly 25 years and fucked me up fierce. I'm talking bloody face etc.
Just jump him with your friends as he's leaving the gym
Christopher Hughes
i quit, got hit by bodyshots and i just reacted very badly to them i was doing fairly well before that too, still up in the air if i'll get to the ring again
How often do you guys get beat the fuck up in your gyms? Arent sparring partners not supposed to destroy each other? This is the kind of shit that makes me reluctant to join the gym, I’m not trying to have some freak try and kill me in a friendly sparring match
Oliver Torres
A lot of boxers get fucked up in their first fight. Was it just sparring or an actual amateur fight? For some strange reason I want to chase the glory of fighting a real amateur fight but it just seems pointless at the same time at my age.
Nolan Ramirez
You have to assert dominance in sparring, otherwise you'll become the gym "bottom" that everyone has a go on.
Robert Mitchell
What if you’re a new guy? Is the hazing harsh? How hard are the bottoms getting messed up in sparring? Tell me more about this fascinating and brutish environment…
As soon as you start sparring you are contending with other physical males looking to climb the gym hierarchy, normally the top guys of the gym are used to prepare amateur boxers. A gym bottom will probably get beaten up quickly by a more experienced sparring partner to establish their place in the totem pole, they'll most likely just get pounded on. From there on it's up to the bottoms to let the experience make or break their sparring careers, I've seen more than a few bottoms get whooped and never come back to the gym again, for the bottoms that stick around they should grow in experience from subsequent sparring sessions and then become higher-tier bottoms that beat on fresh, inexperienced bottoms.
how do you visualise scoring? i always get flustered e.g. when someone says they have a fighter 5 rounds ahead going into the 11th. how do you do that math in your head to work out how many rounds they each have? i just suck at mental arithmetic
Luis Wilson
What do you mean? They make notes
Xavier Nguyen
Just download a boxing scoring app if it's giving you too much trouble
Connor Perry
That sounds pretty cutthroat mane. Where do you rate yourself on the totem pole? Battle hardened bottom?
