PHOTOS: Brian Castano and Jermell Charlo Battle to 12-Round Split-Draw in San Antonio

Brian Castano and Jermell Charlo delivered a gem on Saturday night (Photo: Amanda Westcott / SHOWTIME)

By Chris Robinson

This past Saturday night, July 17, IBF/WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo and WBO champion Brian Castaño battled to a 12-round split decision draw in their SHOWTIME-televised main event. The bout took place at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, TX, and was presented by Premier Boxing Champions.

Both Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs) and Castaño (17-0-2, 12 KOs) delivered excellent performances in their quest to become the first ever undisputed 154-pound champion in the four-belt era. After 12 rounds of action, the fight was declared a split-draw, with scorecards of 114-114, 117-111 Charlo, and 115-113 Castano being read.

“Shout out to San Antonio for coming through. The win is what I wanted to hear,” said Charlo post-fight. “I won this fight. I hurt him way more than he did to me. Castaño is a real warrior. But my power is serious at this weight division.”

Charlo’s Argentinean counterpart obviously disagreed.

“I won the fight,” said Castaño. “There were some rounds that he did hit me and he hit me hard. But I won this fight. I want to thank San Antonio. I want to thank SHOWTIME and Al Haymon for this fight. It was a great opportunity.”

It was a very competitive fight with several close rounds. Charlo hurt Castano in the second, only for the favor to be returned one round later, as the Houston native was stunned along the ropes. Charlo appeared to be losing halfway through the fight, but turned the tide late and rallied, hurting Castano in a big 10th round.

According to CompuBox, Charlo landed 151 of 533 (28.3%) punches in the fight to Castaño’s 173 of 586 (29.5%). Castaño held a slight advantage in power punches, landing 164 of 400 (41%) to Charlo’s 98 of 246 (39.8%) while Charlo out-jabbed Castano by a significant margin, landing 53 of 287 (18.5%) to Castaño’s nine out of 186 (4.8%).

Both men have retained their titles and a rematch would be great television.