Saturday at the Toyota Arena, Ontario, California WBC super welterweight title holder Tony Harrison took on Jermell Charlo in a rematch of their December 22nd 2018 contest. In their first meeting at the Barclays Center, it was Charlo who entered as champion but after being upset via unanimous decision for his belt, Charlo has been waiting on sidelines for an opportunity to regain his title.
The duo was supposed to meet earlier in 2019 but an ankle injury suffered by Harrison delayed the rematch and caused bad blood between the two fighters. In fact Charlo has been very vocal in accusing Harrison of faking his injury, in response Harrison has only smiled and prodded Charlo with claims of “I am in his head”
When the bell rang to start the affair Charlo rushed out throwing wide powerful hooks looking to make a statement and prove their first meeting was a fluke win for Tony.
While Charlo threw wide hooks Harrison worked his jab from a distance and kept Charlo at bay, Charlo would draw first blood in round two by scoring a knockdown but Harrison would get up to finish strong.
In the rounds following Harrison piled up points with his jab and working the body of Charlo, in return Jermell continued with wide looping punches.
Once the championship rounds began it appeared Harrison was comfortably ahead on points, Harrison seemed to feel that way as well and started to showboat.
As Harrison continued to showboat it allowed Charlo to land one of those big hooks and put Tony down in the eleventh, he would beat the count go down once more before rising for a second time and find himself pinned on the ropes under a barrage of Charlo punches.
With two knockdowns and Harrison not answering back off the ropes, referee Jack Reiss was forced to halt the contest giving Jermell Charlo the win and making him now a two time champion. With his title back Charlo improved to 33-1(17) while Harrison drops to 28-3(21).
In the co-feature heavyweights Efe Ajagba and Iago Kiladze faced off for a scheduled ten round affair, Ajagba a big puncher with a massive size advantage was expected to blast Kiladze out inside of two rounds. The fighter from Georgia who jumped up from the cruiserweight division and has suffered all his previous losses by stoppage wasn’t going away easy.
The undefeated Ajagba worked behind his jab following up with a big right hand that hurt Kiladze anytime it landed but Kiladze calm under pressure, fired back his own shots stunning and even dropping the less experience Ajagba in round four.
The affair would end in round five after the corner as Kiladze was under fire in the corner and his team called a halt to the contest. With the win Efe Ajagba improved to 12-0(10) while Iago Kiladze now stands at 26-5-1(18).
In undercard action
Super Featherweight- Oscar Escandon 26-5(18) def. Jhack Tepora 23-1(17) via KO 1
Super Middleweight-Hugo Centeno Jr 27-3-1(14) and Juan Macias Montiel 21-4-2(21) fought to a ten round split draw.
Light Heavyweight- Andre Dirrell 27-3(17) def. Juan Ubaldo Cabrera 24-3(16) via KO 5
Lightweight- Rene Tellez Giron 14-1(8) def. Carlos Balderas 9-1(8) via KO 6
Super Lightweight- Jerry Perez 11-1(8) Tyrone Luckey 9-11-4(7) 6 Rds.
Cruiserweight- Adrian Taylor 11-0(4) def. German Perez 11-7-3(3) via UD 6
Super Lightweight- Yovani Rodarte 10-2-1(5) Eduardo Rafael Reyes 9-16(6) 6 Rds
Super Lightweight- Justin Cardona 4-0(2) def. Archie Weah 3-14(1) via. UD 4
Welterweight- Eimantas Stanionis 10-0(7) def. Julio Cesar Sanchez 11-3(6) via. KO 3
Super Middleweight-Petr Khamukov 5-0(2) def. Maceo Crowder 2-4(1) via RTD 2
Super Bantamweight-Jose Balderas 9-0(3) def. Nestor Ramos 7-11-1(3) via RTD 3
Super Middleweight-Anthony Flagg 5-0 (4) def. Jamarcus Warren 2-2-1(1) via. KO 3
Middleweight- Raymond Guajardo 5-0(4) def. Donnis Reed 3-5(2) via. KO 1
