I had Charlo leading by one point (86-85) entering the tenth round, so it was another close and exciting fight on my card but Charlo was far ahead on the official judges' cards (by three, five, and seven points) and little did anyone know that at the start of the round, it was Castano that needed a knockout to win.
I thought all of the cards were ridiculous and anything more than a point or two in favor of either fighter was an awful scorecard.
Castano landed more punches and more power shots, yet Charlo led by seven points on one scorecard?
This fight was even better than their first and the styles mesh so well that should Castano win a fight or two on the comeback trail, I would have no issues with the two fighters hooking it up for the third time.
Charlo doesn't seem to have a lot of options for big money despite his status as the undisputed king of the division.
In the division, fights against promising, undefeated mandatory challengers Sebastian Fundora (WBC) and Tim Tszyu (WBO) would provide Charlo with interesting and action affairs with each having a solid chance to dethrone Charlo but neither will provide the champion with an excessively large paycheck either.
What would be a big money fight could be the winner of the Errol Spence-Terence Crawford fight as the unified welterweight champion challenging Charlo for all four of the junior middleweight titles but that likely only happens if Crawford wins as Spence is a Charlo buddy along with sharing a trainer to make a Charlo-Spence fight unlikely at best.
Charlo's brother, Jermall, is having trouble finding big fights at 160 as the WBC champion, so moving to middleweight for big paydays seems to be a long shot, although a title challenge of someone wouldn't be.
Now that I think about it, Charlo could force a challenge against WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade now that he holds their championship, Charlo could use the WBO's rule of a champion vacating their title to move up in weight could immediately become their number one contender at their new weight class.
While I am not always a fan of the Charlo brother's act outside the ring, give Jermell (and not Jermall) all the credit that he deserves- he earned those four titles by fighting everyone that he could and with no excuses.
Charlo may have been aided in his quest by his promotional company controlling all the stars in his division which made unification fights easier to make but the fighter still fought the fights and didn't back down- full credit to Jermell Charlo.
However, the star of the night once again was welterweight sensation Jaron "Boots" Ennis as Ennis became the IBF's mandatory challenger with a destructive second-round knockout of Canadian Custio Clayton with one right hand.
Ennis landed a shot behind the temple that floored Clayton and even though Clayton rose, his balance was severely impaired and the fight was stopped.
Ennis will now wait for the Errol Spence-Terence Crawford drama to play out and will eventually face the winner but will have to wait again for the fight to happen and what is more likely to happen is the titles are vacated after Spence-Crawford with Ennis fighting for one of those belts.
An idea for Ennis?
How about Ennis vs Jermell Charlo?
If the situation at welter drags out for a while and Charlo gets past whichever mandatory challenger is given first dibs between Sebastian Fundora and Tim Tszyu, tell me you wouldn't be all in for a Boots Ennis challenge of Jermell Charlo?
In 1980 lightweight contender Aaron Pryor was ducked by champions Ernesto Espana (WBA) and Jim Watt (WBC) and couldn't find anyone to fight him.
The Robin Hood of Boxing, Harold Smith, financed a title shot for Pryor at junior welterweight against legendary WBA champion Antonio Cervantes and four rounds later, Pryor was the champion and never saw lightweight again.
Ennis certainly has the frame and power for such a move and despite never fighting at the weight, I'd still pick Ennis over Charlo.
Unlikely to occur but fun to think about.
The reason that I didn't howl too loud about the bad scorecards for Charlo-Castano II was it seemed almost normal compared to the heist that was almost pulled in Paris, France as heavyweight Martin Bakole battered former Olympic gold medalist Tony Yoka around the ring for ten rounds, knocking him down twice, and yet would only win a majority decision.
Bakole knocked down Yoka in the first and almost finished him off in round one and would be given credit for a fifth-round knockdown that was really more of a shove.
Bakole, the younger brother of WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makubu, dominated Yoka, broke his nose early in the fight, and bullied him to the point of Yoka fighting for mere survival in the final round when Yoka needed a knockout to save his undefeated record.
But then the scorecards that had Bakole winning by scores of 96-92 (6-4 minus two knockdowns), 95-93 (5-5 and knockdowns), and a downright amazing 94-94 (6-4 for Yoka and knockdowns) were announced to the amazement to those watching.
I had Bakole winning 99-89 with Yoka only winning round seven and maybe if you were kind, one may have been able to give Yoka round six but nothing else was remotely close.
That would have easily been the worst decision that we have seen in a long time and I'd start counting on having to knock Yoka out if my fighter was going to fight him in France.
Boxing fans often talk of fighters being "exposed" as far as their weaknesses and flaws in particular fights and although that's an overused take, it seems to ring true for Yoka, who seemed to have no clue on how to fend off the aggression of Bakole and had little success doing anything more than a jab that Bakole usually walked through and an occasional right hand.
Yoka entered the fight rated fifth by the IBF, ninth by the WBC, and thirteenth in the WBA ratings, so Bakole's win should allow him to appear in the ratings and might see him leap into involvement in the eliminators held by the IBF to establish their mandatory challenger for the winner of the Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua rematch.
It's too bad that the judges will be remembered longer than the best effort of Bakole's career.
I'll be back later with the rest of the boxing weekend from DAZN and the return of Triller PPV.
Boxing Challenge
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