Jermall Charlo retained his belt and his undefeated record, but had to go the full 12 rounds against Juan Macias Montiel to do it.
Fighting in front of an adoring hometown crowd in Houston, Charlo (32-0, 22 KO) largely controlled the fight from beginning to end. He waited out a very odd, awkward opening that saw Montiel (22-5-2, 22 KO) frequently switching stances and making occasional odd arm motions, repeatedly backing himself into the ropes and corners.
Charlo stayed patient, collected rounds, and started to land powerful, damaging shots in the middle stage of the fight.
Charlo looked on the verge of a knockout or stoppage in the 6th round, but didn’t press hard enough to end the night. BLH (and apparently one of the three judges) scored the round 10-8 in favor of Charlo, despite Montiel avoiding the knockdown.
Montiel was never in that kind of jeopardy again, though. He finished the fight strong, opening a cut on Charlo’s eye and landing some quality punches.
In the end, the judges all scored the fight wide for Charlo, who showed a lot of respect for Montiel’s heart and effort. We had it 118-109, which matched the friendliest score for Montiel from the official judges (118-109, 119-109, 120-108).
“He was a true warrior and he wanted to fight,” Charlo said. “Montiel- thank you, man. Thank you, man! Warrior! Warrior!”
Charlo went on to say he plans to continue fighting at middleweight, and wants a unification in Houston against Gennadiy Golovkin after Golovkin fights Ryota Murata
