Jermell Charlo, Brian Castaño fight to split decision draw

SAN ANTONIO – Jermell Charlo planned to head back to Houston with all four belts at 154 pounds. He’ll have to settle for the three titles he already had.

Charlo and Brian Castaño fought to a split decision draw in a junior middleweight title unification bout Saturday at the AT&T Center with one judge giving  Castaño the nod at 114-113, while Charlo won 117-111 on another scorecard and the third judge had it even at 114-114.

As he is prone to do, Charlo started slow, giving away early rounds, but finished strong. All three judges had him sweeping the final three rounds, which was enough to earn him the draw. Throwing out the lopsided score in Charlo’s favor, the fight was tight and Charlo salvaged it by turning it on in the final few rounds.

Charlo says he still has plans to get that WBO belt from Castaño in a rematch.

“I want that,” Charlo said of a possible rematch. “That’s my goal. That’s my destiny. We shall see.”

Castaño appeared to be on his way to taking all the belts himself before Charlo came alive late. Charlo wobbled  Castaño midway through the 10th round and appeared to have him on the verge of going down several times.  Castaño survived the round however, and in retrospect, him staying on his feet during that flurry save himself from defeat.

Both men were trying to become the first fighter to hold all four belts at 154 pounds. The last undisputed champion in the weight class was Winky Wright, who won three belts when he beat Shane Mosley in 2004, but a fourth belt has been added since then.