In long distance races over 800 meters you witness how strategy comes into play more than one’s natural abilities. If you extend too much energy too early you could get burned on the last 100 meters, and if you are too lax early on your competition will have too great of a lead to overcome. The same rules apparently apply to the fight game.
Southwest Houston’s own Jermell Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs) faced off against Brian Castano (17-0-2) at the AT&T Center in an attempt to add a fourth WBO belt to his three-deep collection of IBF, WBA and WBC belts. Unfortunately, the fight resulted in a draw where in Brian Castano won his round early in the fight and Charlo turned up late. The judges had the bout scored 114-113 Castano, 116-112 Charlo and 114-114.
When Charlo’s trainer Derrick James was asked what was the reasoning or thought process in the moment when he told Charlo to go for the knockout, James replied.
“The reason why I said it was because you have to find some reason to inspire the fighter. When you look up at the scorecards you would see that the unofficial judges had him (Charlo) down. So, I said you need to pick it up to go out there and get it and that is what he really did.” James stated.
“And what made me do it is I saw that and our cut man Joe was telling me they had him down. Then after that he won the tenth and the eleventh where he hurt his opponent several times. And in the twelfth, I said we need a knockout and you need to put the pedal to metal,” James continued.
The Defender was on the scene at the post-fight press conference to discuss Charlo’s thoughts on the fight, those final rounds of the fight, a rematch and more.
Thoughts on Judges’ Decision
Charlo: “I do feel like I won more of the rounds than he did…..I feel like I pushed a lot harder than he did. He wasn’t running in there trying to ‘Brian Castano’ because I took him out of his game plan. If they (the judges) really knew who Brian Castano was and how he actually fights and threw 11,000 punches from how I did it I think I did the better performance than a lot of people that fought him. I didn’t see errors like you saw in our fight, I didn’t see him wobbling all over the ring….”
Why No Knockout in 10th & 11th Rounds?
Charlo: “I know in boxing from so many years of being taught the game you don’t rush knockouts. If you go in there and you will learn like I kinda did in the Tony Harrison fight. You know I wasn’t going to get tired and I still feel good and I could have done more. But when you up there dog it is not the same as just talking about it. It is a little bit different. The reactions and things are moving way more slower and faster. So, it is like I should have unloaded the clip and let that s**t go but I had a low clip.”
What do you feel you will do different if you have a rematch?
Charlo: “That is why I have a coach that loves to watch film in his big game room, watch fights and just replay them back-to-back-to-back. He will be calling me all day so I am happy about that. But just off of my mental I think I could have easily been a little more active. I stayed composed waiting to see what his move was gonna be then took him out of his game plan. You see that he got hurt in the beginning when he tried to throw four or five punches at one time. That is when he got caught. And if he would have tried to do that again I would have came back and did the exact same thing and that fight would have ended earlier…I am used to knocking guys out and tonight I did not get a knockout. Tonight I didn’t even get a win. I got a draw and that s**t is weird right now because I have never gotten a draw. I see people getting draws but that is what comes with this boxing game you know what I’m saying. I’m back at it and nothing is going to change from it.”
