Bad blood continues to brew between Tony Harrison and Jermell Charlo.
The junior middleweights went back and forth during a testy, expletive-laden press conference Thursday in Los Angeles to announce their December 21 rematch in nearby Ontario. The rematch of their hotly disputed fight last year, in which Harrison took Charlo’s title by a split decision, was postponed after Harrison suffered an ankle injury in training camp.
Charlo, however, was never sold on that explanation. On Thursday, he insisted that Harrison “faked his injury” as a cover up for a sparring session that had gone wrong.
“DeAndre Ware was one of your sparring partners out in Detroit,” Charlo said. “He clipped you. Dropped you. You were out. And then you had to regroup in your mind. Keep it real.”
Charlo (32-1, 16 knockouts) suggested that the alleged knockdown left Harrison too rattled to go on with the rematch in the summer.
“You faked the injury,” Charlo continued. “Thank you for being honest. He wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready for what I was getting ready to deliver to him.”Harrison (28-2, 21 KOs) chuckled and responded, “I’m here, aren’t I?”
But Charlo didn’t stop there.
“You didn’t have surgery,” he said. “June 3rd you were supposed to be having surgery on your ankle. He cleared himself. He didn’t have a doctor clear his ankle. … All of a sudden, you postpone the fight. Yeah, you faked it.”
