Battle for Undisputed Super Welterweight Crown Ends in Draw

By Uppercut Magazine staff

Published July 17, 2021

Undisputed titles will have to wait as Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano fought to a raucous split draw after 12rounds on Saturday.

Each fighter returns home with his titles.

In front of 12,000 fans in San Antonio, Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs) was able to escape with a draw against the busier Argentine Castano (17-0-2, 12 KOs) who though hurt several times survived but was not able to survive hometown scoring at the AT&T Center.

Charlo entered the boxing ring as the WBA, WBC and IBF super welterweight titlist and needed Castano’s WBO version to lock up the whole division. It was not to be.

After a counter left hook by Charlo seemed to wobble Castano in the second round, it appeared it would be a matter of time before the end would come. But the Argentine fighter rallied and rallied big.

Castano was able to charge forward with his pressure style but made some adjustments to avoid Charlo’s lethal left hook. It proved successful for most of the fight until the 10^th round.

After seemingly winning round after round Charlo turned things around with that sneaky stiff left jab that shook Castano. The Argentine went on survival mode. The judges never gave Castano another round and that proved disastrous for him in winning a decision.

“Brian Castano is a total warrior,” said Charlo. “But like I said, my power is something serious in this weight division.”

After 12 rounds one judge scored it 114-114, another 117-111 Charlo and a third 114-113 for Castano to make it a split draw.

“I hope for a rematch,” said Castano.

Romero Wins

Rolly Romero (14-0, 12 KOs) manhandled and bullied Anthony Yigit (24-2-1, 8 KOs) to win by knockout and keep his record undefeated and the interim WBA lightweight title.

Yigit weighed five pounds over the 135-pound limit so was unable to win the interim version which simply means whoever holds the title is ranked number one. That extra weight did not help him against the roughhouse tactics of Romero who toss him around and head locked him several times during the fight.

The referee Rafael Ramos lost control early.

Eventually Romero connected with his big right hand and floored Yigit at the end of the fifth round after a point was deducted for elbows. Yigit survived the sixth but could not escape Romero’s power who connected with a left hook and a shove to drop the Swedish fighter in the seventh. Yigit got up and was hit with a right and another shove but this time the fight was ended by referee Rafael Ramos who ignored the shoves and stopped the contest at 1:54 of the seventh round.

“Points get deducted from everybody,’ said Romero about his rough tactics.

Romero stated he wants a match with Gervonta “Tank” Davis next.

“I’m stronger than him,” Romero said.

Vidal wins

Despite an impressive performance by Immanuwel Aleem (18-3-2) it was not enough to impress the judges who preferred Uruguay’s Amilcar Vidal (13-0) who took the win by majority decision in a 10-round middleweight fight.

Aleem fought valiantly inside against Vidal who had a five-inch reach advantage. The shorter fighter seemed to find more success fighting inside. The fans loved it too. But after 10 rounds one judge scored it 95-95 with two others seeing it 97-93 for Vidal.