In disappointing news, Brian Castano suffered a biceps tear in his right arm while training for his rematch with Jermell Charlo, and the fight will now either be postponed for 3 to 4 weeks or canceled altogether. It had been planned to be televised on Showtime.
As of now, the Charlo vs. Castano 2 fight is being postponed, but it’s possible that it’ll be canceled. The injury occurred a week and a half ago, but it’s only now being revealed.
According to ESPN, it’s thought that the injury will heal in a month. Of course, that’s under an ideal scenario.
In reaction to the injury of Castano, WBO president Paco Valcarcel posted on Twitter that the rematch might not happen.
“Castano vs Charlo..Look like no unification will take place. Who you can blame? Probably Castan’o,” said Paco Valcárcel, Esq.
So there it is. WBO president hinting that the rematch between the two junior middleweight champions Charlo and Castano might not take place. That doesn’t mean that it won’t, but it could prove difficult to make the rematch happen given the commitments for the two fighters.
Both champions have mandatory defenses due, and the sanctioning bodies could order those fights.
Castano’s WBO mandatory Tim Tszyu has been waiting for his mandated title shot for a long time, and he’s just one example. If the World Boxing Organization choose to order the Castano vs. Tszyu fight, it would wipe out the rematch with Charlo.
The unbeaten #1 WBO Tszyu (20-0, 15 KOs) had been scheduled in the co-feature bout on the Charlo vs. Castano II card in a bout against Terrell Gausha.
For the sake of argument, if the Charlo-Castano rematch doesn’t take place, the boxing public will still get a chance to see a great fight between Castano and Tszyu next. That would be just as entertaining as a Castano-Charlo rematch.
WBO 154-lb champion Castano (17-0-1, 12 KOs) suffered the injury while sparring for his March 19th bout against IBF, WBA & WBC champion Jermell (34-1-1, 18 KOs) at the Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles.
Last July, Charlo, and Castano fought to an unpopular 12 round draw in an exciting fight in San Antonio, Texas. The judges’ score were:
- Jermell – 117-111
- Castano – 114-113
- Even – 114-114
The 117-111 score for Charlo looked completely out of place for the fight that took place inside the ring.
Many boxing fans felt that Castano had done more than enough to win the fight with the pressure and the high volume attack of his.
“It isn’t a foregone conclusion the fight will be rescheduled. PBC, which promotes both boxers, was forced to deal with several looming sanctioning body obligations to allow the rematch to proceed. It’s possible one of the organizations will enforce a mandatory title defense against one of the No. 1 contenders. Charlo holds three belts while Castano owns one,” said Mike Coppinger of ESPN.
