Jermell Charlo-Tony Harrison rematch on for December
Nearly one year to the day after Tony Harrison got a surprising 12 round decision win over Jermell Charlo to take his WBC Jr. Middleweight Championship, the two will finally rematch.
The Athletic’s boxing insider, Mike Coppinger, was first to report the Charlo-Harrison will take place on Saturday, December 21st likely to be at Staples Center in Los Angeles:
Sources: The Tony Harrison-Jermell Charlo junior middleweight title rematch will headline PBC on FOX on Dec. 21 in Southern California. The fight was originally slated for June 23 before Harrison injured his ankle. Harrison upset Charlo via controversial decision in December ‘18.
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) October 29, 2019
The rematch was originally scheduled for earlier this summer (June 23rd), when Harrison suffered a serious ankle injury which postponed the fight. Charlo (32-1, 16 KOs) went ahead and fought replacement opponent Jorge Cota scoring a spectacular 3rd round knockout.
Charlo originally won the vacant WBC 154 lbs. belt with an 8th round TKO over Jon Jackson in Las Vegas in May of 2016. Charlo scored easy knockouts in his first two defenses, including a one round destruction of Erickson Lubin in October of 2017. He then won a majority decision over Austin Trout in Los Angeles in June of 2018 setting up the fourth title defense with Harrison.
That fight took place last December at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, as Harrison took the fight early to Charlo. However, it appeared that Charlo won several of the final rounds of the fight and deserved the decision. Yet, when the scorecards were announced, Harrison was given the surprising unanimous decision. That included one judge scoring it 8-4 in rounds for the challenger.
Harrison is 28-2 having suffered a surprising TKO loss to journeyman Willie Monroe in June of 2015 ending the 21-0 unbeaten run to start his career. Harrison was also stopped in his next World Title bid by Jarrett Hurd for February of 2017 the IBF belt, again on 9th round TKO.
Harrison rebounded to win his next three fights to earn the shot with Charlo and took full advantage for the upset.
Charlo’s brother, Jermall, will be defending his WBC Middleweight belt two weeks earlier on December 7th against Dennis Hogan.
A veteran broadcaster of over 25 years, T.J. has been a fight fan longer than that! He’s the host of the “Big Fight Weekend” podcast and will go “toe to toe” with anyone who thinks that Marvin Hagler beat Sugar Ray Leonard or that Tyson, Lennox Lewis or Deontay Wilder could have beaten Ali!
