One can’t let his guard down against a fighter like Jermell Charlo, not even for a split second. Tony Harrison did so and lost his title as a result.
Harrison, defending the junior middleweight belt he took from Charlo by a controversial decision almost exactly a year ago, said afterward that he was coasting past his rival in the rematch Saturday in Ontario, California. And some will agree with him. One judge and I had him winning 95-94 after 10 rounds.
Then one punch rendered all else irrelevant. Charlo landed a left hook midway through Round 11 that sent Harrison reeling and then down. And he was hurt badly. He got up but then absorbed a series of hard punches that put him down again and prompted Charlo, assuming he had won, to leap onto the ropes in celebration.
Harrison got up again but one more barrage of punches with his back against the ropes convinced referee Jack Reiss to end the fight. The official time was 2:28.
Just like that, Charlo turned a close fight into a convincing victory to regain the title he lost to a man he really can’t stand.
“I got my belt back,” a jubilant Charlo said in the ring immediately afterward. “… [And] I didn’t leave it up to the judges.”
The fight didn’t play out as many expected. Harrison, the boxer, walked down Charlo much of the fight. And Charlo, who was assertive at times, wasn’t quite as aggressive as some people thought he needed to be to win the fight.
The new champ was very aggressive in Round 2, coming out at the bell like a wild man. Harrison, a clever defensive fighter, was able to withstand the pressure until a left hook from Charlo put him on his behind.
The rest of the fight was give and take, as a number of rounds could’ve gone either way. One could argue that Harrison controlled the action with his jab and enough power punches – including many to the body – to win the majority of the rounds.
Plus, many of Charlo’s punches, as ill-intended as they were, landed on Harrison’s gloves and shouldn’t have been considered scoring blows.
At the same time, Charlo was busier than Harrison at a number of junctures and was able to get enough punches – some of them hard, eye-catching shots – through Harrison’s guard.
Two judges had Charlo winning by the same score after 10 rounds – 96-93, or six rounds to four. The third judge gave Harrison six rounds. Those scores or anything in between were reasonable given the competitiveness of the fight.
And none of it mattered midway through Round 11. The left hook changed everything. Harrison was able to get up from both knockdowns that round but never fully recovered, which became obvious to Reiss in the end.
Some people will argue that the stoppage was premature because Harrison wasn’t taking heavy blows at that moment. However, Harrison, who initially protested vociferously, gave Reiss the benefit of the doubt when he was interviewed.
“Jack is a championship referee,” said Harrison, who clearly was devastated after the fight. “I ain’t gonna question whatever he saw. I started to get a little lax and got caught. … [Charlo] earned it. I hate it. But he earned it.
“… I’d like to do it one more time,” he added, seemingly almost in tears. “I felt like I let us down. I felt like I let me down. Damn.”
Charlo was gracious afterward, or as gracious as he could be given the nasty pre-fight trash talk that resulted the controversial decision in the first fight and the fact Harrison had to postpone the rematch because of a nagging ankle injury.
Still, Charlo followed tradition by walking over to Harrison’s corner to congratulate him on a good fight.
“I’m a gentleman at the end of the day,” Charlo said. “I have a family to feed, so does he. May the best man win. I showed good sportsmanship. But at the end of the day, I don’t that dude – period.”
Charlo-Harrison III? The winner was asked whether he’d be willing to fight Harrison again and initially indicated that is open to the idea but then said, “I’m off to bigger and better things,” which doesn’t bode well for Harrison.
Charlo was also asked about Julian Williams, who holds two 154-pound titles.
He responded, including brother Jermall in his answer: “We’re history making twins. I’m down for whatever makes history.”