I have been thinking about the fan responses to this Jermell Charlo vs. Brian Castano fight and I had the urge to make a few points concerning the junior middleweight unification bout.
Many Castano fans believe their guy won the fight, of which I disagree, and many of the Charlo fans believe their guy won the fight of which I disagree.
I believe it was a draw. And most of the boxing stats show it to have been relatively even in terms of punches landed as wells as percentage landed overall.
Yet, to the viewer, it may have seemed as if Charlo was being out fought, in some cases. The truth is Castano’s output was down. Castano typically throws several hundred more punches in a fight. But not in this fight. In this fight his punch count was way down. Why, would you ask it were down, and I would suggest the punching power of Jermell Charlo was on his mind a little and getting to close could mean you get hurt enough to be knocked out. So, he didn’t get close too much. Smart thing to do. As I recall he got close two or three times and had to run around until he could clear his head.
Well, how about Jermell Charlo? Well, his output was about the same as for all his fights. And that means his output was low. Jermell Charlos output is always low and that’s not smart when fighting a guy that throws a lot of punches. It’s not good because it makes it look as if you’re being outfought. Many Castano fans and many boxing fans in general, thought he was being outfought. But was he? No, he was not being out fought, but in an Amateur fight he would have been outpointed, but this wasn’t an amateur fight. So, hitting him on his arms shouldn’t score you anything and in the end, it didn’t.
Professional boxer use their arms like shields, to block punches. So, the only place to score is to the body and to the head. Professional boxing fans sometimes forget that. If you’re fighter is throwing a high level of punches and they are landing on the shield, meaning the arms, of the opposing fighter there should be no advantage to your fighter for that.
Castano hit Charlo on his shields a lot. He should not have gotten any credit for that. The same goes for punching someone’s gloves that are protecting the face, shielding the face. Charlo did a lot of that. He should not have gotten any credit for punching what is regarded as a face shield.
All judges should know that about being shielding with your arms and your gloves.
So, regarding their performances both fighters didn’t perform. Charlo looked bad for all he did, while waiting for an opening, was to throw one jab at a time. On occasion, he threw a one two combination. Sadly, that was enough to keep Castano’s punching output down. One Jab at a time and an occasional one two combination. That’s not good. That was very bad for what the viewer and his supporters were seeing take place. It looked as if he didn’t have any boxing skills to call upon. But he did have some skills to call upon and during the rare occasion when he did punch in combination he hit Castano with punches that commanded respect.
But then Charlo would go back to one jab and then one jab and then one jab. It was bad. Castano was waiting as well. Castano would wait until he got Charlos back to the ropes, then making his way close to throw a high number of punches on Charlo’s shields. There were a few times where he landed a good one on the jaw or a good one to the lips or a good one to the body. But he mainly hit Charlo’s shields; his arms.
It looked good to his fans but it’s not damaging, because professional fighters get recognition for their work when it lands to the body or the head, not the shields.
There was nothing outstanding about either of them, or in what they did. Absolutely nothing, both had poor performances as professional fighters. Now, if they were being judged as amateurs I could see Castano winning on points because when he did get close he threw rapid 4 or 5 punch combinations to the shields of Charlo. And that could sway a judge in an amateur fight. And to his credit, on occasion, Charlo would accommodate him and respond with a 4 or 5 punch combination. Not often but he would return the fire at random in exchanges.
All in All, this was a very poor fight. I guess there is going to be a rematch. I won’t pay for the rematch. I’ll have to get the news the day after. I believe if given the chance they will do the same thing.
For Castano to win the rematch he must add the punch volume he left out of this fight and get around those shields and for Charlo to win he would have to increase his punching output and double and triple jab behind combinations. They won’t do that. It’s not in Charlo to do that because he is afraid to get tired and possibly knocked out. And Castano won’t add the volume because he is afraid to run out of gas and that would mean being knocked out.
The way it ended, “A DRAW” they both can claim victory.
