Total super welterweight unification appears to be on the horizon, as Mike Coppinger reports that WBC/WBA/IBF champion Jermell Charlo and WBO champion Brian Castano are set to duke it out on a July 17th Showtime broadcast.
Charlo (34-1, 18 KO) first claimed WBC gold in 2016 with a wild comeback knockout of John Jackson, then successfully defended it against Charles Hatley, Erickson Lubin, and Austin Trout before controversially losing it to Tony Harrison. After staying busy with a wipeout of Jorge Cota, he decisively stopped Harrison to reclaim the belt and subsequently crushed Jeison Rosario for the WBA and IBF belts.
Castano (17-0-1, 12 KO) won the interim WBA title by knocking out Emmanuel de Jesus and narrowly edged out countryman Michel Soro before being promoted to “world” champion, a title he defended with a knockout of Cedric Vitu and entertaining draw against Erislandy Lara. He wound up vacating the belt over a dispute with Soro, his mandatory challenger, but managed to beat down Patrick Teixeira this past February for the WBO title.
This, like Josh Taylor vs. Jose Ramirez, is as good as an undisputed fight gets, a clash between the clear #1 and #2 fighters in the division who both have crowd-pleasing styles and vicious finishing ability. Can’t wait to see this one go down.
