Jermell Charlo is now the undisputed super champ after knocking out Brian Castaño twice to score 10order winning round in Carson, California.
The top two teams at 154lbs meet for the second time in 10 months since their passionate first encounter and ended in a draw.
Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs) told the media throughout the week that he had no intention of letting the second leg go to the scorecard.
The first six rounds were extremely competitive. Charlo, who has entered as WBC, IBF and WBA champion, managed to keep Castaño flying with his strike early on. A short left hook from the WBO belt holder ignited the flames in Charlo, who counter-attacked the shot in the remaining seconds of the first half.
Castaño (17-1-2, 12 KOs) spends most of the teamfight watching his 31-year-old opponent’s every move and doing his best to be as annoying as possible. The two were making bad shots at each other, leaving the crowd gasping in awe as they watched their iron chin take the penalty.
Charlo is mixing it back up with a plan b that he chooses depending on what Castaño has done. The Argentinian was a bull and couldn’t use some of his own fallback tactics, but he won the rounds. In the final 40 seconds of the third, the two adversaries tore each other with Charlo smiling as he returned to his stool.
The all-action finals continue in Wednesday. No one stepped back. Charlo shot the rope in the fifth round with an eye-catching two or two and then the two traded together. Castaño then appeared stunned by a right hand but enough to bounce back to show Charlo that he wasn’t done.
From the seventh round, the number one super heavyweight finally took control of the fight. Moving Castaño around with his shot, trading as needed, he did more than enough to make subsequent rounds. Powerful shots were never far away, and a massive left hook rocked Castaño to the dominance of rubberstamp Charlo.
A right through the guardian of Castaño is an example of Charlo’s precision growing stronger. The fight moved further and further away from the WBO champion and in the tenth round, his effort came to an end. A short left hand inside dropped the 32-year-old with less than a minute left. The warrior instinct drove him forward, but Charlo had his men where he wanted him and finished the job ruthlessly pinning Castaño to the ropes, slamming him over the head with shovels. punch before knocking down the Buenos Aires tough man again to become the undisputed super heavyweight champion.
The previous animosity between the two had passed as they embraced and showed respect for each other after the official results were announced. Castaño will be back and prove to be a little guy to anyone else at 154lbs. For Charlo, this is legacy and as the dust settles he will likely move into the middleweight class to enhance his growing status in the sport even further.
