By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing
Former WBO 154-pound champion Brian Castano has cast doubt on the hand injury WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO super welterweight champion Jermell Charlo suffered in sparring, which forced the postponement of his bout with WBO #1 Tim Tszyu for all the belts on January 28 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
“I hope Charlo presents medical evidence supporting that the injury he mentions is real for the Tim Tszyu fight,” Castano stated on Twitter. “You never know with him (Charlo). In any case, he will now learn that injuries do occur in boxing. What goes around comes around.”
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Charlo responded, “37 fights in ain’t never had to postpone shit. I’ll never back out or down from any man. I’m King of 154. This ain’t no mental health issue, this ain’t no sling you can buy at a pharmacy like Castano did. Imma bounce back and give my supporters two fights this year. Stay tuned.
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And Castano replied, “Before the Charlo rematch I’ve got an injury that prevented me to use my arm for 4 weeks. I’ve produced a 20-page medical report from different specialist doctors + MRI’s, etc. Charlo put it on doubt weeping like a girl. Now he even talks down on people with mental health issues! He’s just a bad person. He robbed me in the first fight but no excuses: he beat me fairly in the rematch. But I had to fight him not in my best condition since the WBO threatened to strip me from my belt and prevent the fight otherwise. Let’s see if he receives the same treatment he deserves now.”
I really can’t stand the Charlos. Absolute clowns and extremely overrated.
Regardless of the claims, the fact exists the fight is postponed. Boxing is a business, and many fighters postpone fights with many deliberate and nondeliberate excuses to protect their own investment in the sport. Excuses range from not being ready mentally, injuries, infections, lack of training, etc. At this point, let’s move on there is nothing we can do except wait.
Wow, a whopping two fights in 2023. Charlo is talented but him, his brother, Crawford, and Spence need to look up the word ‘consistency’ in the Webster dictionary. What is this 9 and 10 months or over a year in-between fights non-sense?? Look at Terry Norris, Pernell Whitaker, Julio Cesar Chavez, Erik Morales and how often they fought during their prime. I will never classify the Charlos, Crawford, or Spence as all-time great fighters because off their inactivity. You can’t call yourself great and only ply your trade once or twice a year.
Jody Partin I understand if you don’t like their inactivity but your rationale for greatness doesn’t make much sense.
Kosta Tszyu, Sugar Ray Leonard, Azumah Nelson, Felix Trinidad, Floyd Mayweather, Andre Ward & Lennox Lewis are just a few all time great boxers that for large periods in their careers for whatever reason were fighting 2-3 times per year Max.
I would also like to see the Charlotte twin Spence & Crawford box more often but so long as they are involved in good fights against quality opponents whenever they do show up, that’s good enough for me.
Charlo, show me the carfax. Show me the medical report.
I’m sure the injury is legit, Hopefully Charlo takes the necessary time recovering and does not rush to get back to punching until it’s fully healed. if his team is smart they will give him an easy tune up fight as well to shake off the rust the first time out.
If tszyu’s management team is smart they would be wise to keep the element of surprise and not fight a top guy until they get charlo in the ring or fight for his belts. the smart move would be to take a stay busy fight against a low risk light hitting opponent. Don’t show any of the things he’s worked on so that everyone including charlo will keep thinking he has no head movement, no defense and is easily hit.
Keep the cards close to the vest.
Al Haymon is the reason these guys fight every so often. He is the cancer of the sport. Can’t believe you guys don’t see that.
Jermell Charlo is a top 10 pound for pound fighter and his brother Jermall is a top 20 pound for pound fighter; love their energy, bravado, and shit talking, makes for good theatre. I agree with the statement above that Al Haymon is the reason that they fight so less. Castano is just butthurt.
Who have the Charlo brothers beat to be in the top 10 or 20 P4P list?
Well, for starters, Charlo just banged out your boy Brian Castano and he’s the unified junior middleweight champ, which is arguably the best division in boxing. The older brother beat the brakes of of Derechyencko. He called out GGG and Canelo for 3 years straight and has gotten crickets for a response.
I agree that Al Heymon is a problem presence in boxing now. I used to like what he and the PBC brand did, which included putting good fights on free tv that were broadcast on major networks during prime time (i.e., Thurman-Porter). Now the PBC brand and the fighters in that promotional stable are a hot mess. I also agree with the statement that you can’t call yourself a great fighter if you just ply your trade once a year to eighteen months. The only guy who was able to somewhat pull that off was Sugar Ray Leonard in the late-80’s, but even he fought twice in 1989. Never thought I’d say this but I miss the days when Don King put on those marathon PPV cards in the 90’s and early-2000’s that were stacked with great fights featuring active fighters. It’s just a way different sport and business model now.
Charlo and PBC have stalled long enough.
Strip him.
I’m with Castano on this, I want to see an MRI or x-rays proving that his hand is broken. The Argentine proved his injury, so now I want to see Charlo’s proof.