After putting on one of 2021’s best fights, super welterweight champions Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano are looking to start 2022 strong. Lance Pugmire reports that the WBO has “struck” a resolution with mandatory challenger Tim Tszyu to let their rematch, which PBC “is expected” to stage in February in Houston, proceed.
Most expected Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KO) and Castano (17-0-2, 12 KO) to put on a show when they met last July with all four titles on the line, and they more than delivered. Castano’s trademark pressure, aggression, and slick infighting paid consistent dividends, but Charlo’s booming power gave him multiple scares and kept the fight painfully tense. Castano appeared to have edged out a monumental win, but split scorecards, “highlighted” by Nelson Vazquez’s inexcusable 117-111 for Charlo, prevented any sort of coronation.
While there’s definitely now a logjam of contenders at 154, namely Tszyu, Bakhram Murtazaliev, and whoever wins between Michel Soro and Israil Madrimov, this is a rematch that needed to happen. Can’t wait to see these two go at it again.