The undisputed junior middleweight title ended in a split draw.
It’s not a big boxing match if it doesn’t have judging controversy, and we had that in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday night.
Jermell Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs) and Brian Castano (17-0-1, 12 KOs) duked it out over 12 thrilling rounds for the undisputed junior middleweight title fight. It was a genuinely close contest and ultimately a split draw was ruled, which should set up a rematch of what was one of the best boxing matches of 2021.
Buuuuuuttttt there’s one score from one judge that has drawn the ire of fans. Nelson Vazquez turned in a preposterous 117-111 for Charlo. The other two judges, Tim Cheatham and Steve Weisfeld, saw it as a draw and 114-113 Castano respectively.
Here’s the evidence!
Here’s the full scorecard for #CharloCastano, per @ShowtimeBoxing. pic.twitter.com/HkFWaeIsLf
— Greg Rosenstein (@grosenstein) July 18, 2021
The 10-8 by Weisfeld for Charlo in the 10th round was through what he believed was dominance of a round without a knockdown. Castano was badly hurt and wobbling aplenty but never went down but Weisfeld still scored it 10-8. Vazquez was the dissenting voice in rounds 4 and 8, which both seemed to be Castano rounds. Even if you flipped those rounds to Castano he still would’ve had Charlo winning, which isn’t 100% unjustifiable but certainly would’ve still been controversial.
It should be noted that none of the three judges is based in Texas — Vazquez is based out of Puerto Rico — but maybe just being in the state is enough to create chaotic and incompetent scoring. Also Charlo is from Texas and the clear A-side in this one, so there will no doubt be cries of home cooking.