December 22nd, 2018 the boxing world witnessed a robbery at its finest. Jermell Charlo who was the champion at the time went the distance with challenger Tony Harrison Jr and when the fight was over it looked as if Charlo was going to retain his title.
When it was time for the judges’ scorecards the three judges came out saying Harrison won by unanimous decision. One judge gave Harrison eight rounds to four and two judges gave Harrison seven rounds to five which caused an uproar. The Fox announcers were in shock, the crowd was in shock and social media was blowing up with everyone’s reactions.
The fact that the majority of people saw Charlo take at least seven of these rounds to the fact that the judges gave him four and five rounds was absurd. This was the first loss of Charlo’s career which hurt him emotionally as well as the fact that he lost his title during this to add on to it. What was supposed to be a special night where Jermell and his twin brother Jermall were co-main eventing the card started off terrible.
Now June 23rd at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Jermell gets his rematch that Harrison promised him after defeating Charlo for his title back in December. Jermell knows what he needs to do now which is do not even let this get to the judges, he must take care of his own business and put Harrison on the canvas.
The two are already getting off to an interesting rematch after the press conference to announce the fight. Things got chippy and heated during the interviews and the face-off between the two fighters. The presser started off with Charlo walking up to the stage and not sitting down until Harrison got on the stage as well. As soon as Harrison approached the stage he walked straight up to Charlo and the two clashed foreheads and had a choice of words for one another.
During the press conference Charlo stated how he knows he was robbed of his title and he doesn’t take very well to that. He voiced his opinion about the disresepct:
“I’m coming into this new fight with a whole different mindset and a much different gameplan…..One thing y’all know I do well is destroy those that think they can run their mouth like he is doing. … I’m a man outside of boxing. I don’t know how y’all take disrespect, but I don’t take disrespect well.”
Not only is Charlo annoyed with losing his title, but he also is not a fan of Harrison walking around talking like he really won that fight. At this point, Harrison was heard telling Charlo to shut up from his seat. Jermell even pointed out that Harrison deep down knows he didn’t win that fight:
“You know personally to yourself that you didn’t do enough to win that fight,” Charlo added to his words directly towards Harrison.
When it was Harrison’s turn he tried to shut down Charlo:
“This guy right here is a clown…I don’t know who he think he’s scaring, that sh*t don’t scare me. Don’t nobody get a chance to redeem their losses, because I sure didn’t. But this shows you where I’m at and how confident I am at beating the fool again.”
Harrison continued to call Charlo a cornball throughout the press conference. If you ask me Harrison is trying to really clown Charlo during the press conference because he low key knows he did not win that fight.
The winner of this rematch though will most likely seek Julian Williams, who just defeated Jarrett Hurd over the weekend to win the unified junior middleweight championship which shocked the boxing world. The controversy in the first fight delayed a potential Charlo-Hurd showdown which is now out of the question with Hurd dropping his titles this past Saturday.
The first fight between Charlo and Harrison was a slow-paced fight. Charlo didn’t look his best but he definitely did not lose that fight. Better words let’s say Harrison definitely did not do enough to win the title that night. The rematch coming in June we are expecting a boxing brawl now due to the dislike each has for the other fighter. Both feel disrespected and both will try to prove their worth come June 23rd in Las Vegas.
Michael Carballeira is a Contributor for the Unwrapped Sports Network website. Follow him @MikeCarbz on Twitter.