ONTARIO, California – All three judges scored Tony Harrison a winner over Jermell Charlo a year ago.
His unanimous-decision defeat of the heavily favored Charlo was widely considered controversial, but it earned Harrison the WBC super welterweight title. As good as Harrison feels about beating Charlo, he isn’t convinced he’ll get the benefit of the doubt on the scorecards again Saturday night.
Detroit’s Harrison believes Charlo’s complaints regarding the scoring of their first fight will impact the outcome of a 12-round rematch FOX will televise from Toyota Arena.
Nevada’s Tim Cheatham, California’s Lou Moret and Oklahoma’s David Sutherland have been assigned to judge the rematch between Harrison (28-2, 21 KOs) and Charlo (32-1, 16 KOs).
Harrison considers this a “hometown” fight for Charlo. The 29-year-old Charlo is from Houston, but he owns a home and has trained in the Los Angeles area.
“I think it’s gonna be extremely hard to do it in his hometown and to do it when he cried about the judges,” Harrison told a group of reporters after a press conference Thursday at Toyota Arena. “So, I think now we got the judges contemplating on what they judging now. You know what I mean? But let me tell you this – whoever the judges is; I don’t know who they are – whoever the judges is, do y’all job. Don’t worry about that p*ssy sh*t that he talking about. Just be free. Flow and be free, and do your job that you been doing your whole life. Judge correctly. Judge the best way possible. You are human. I’m human. Everybody’s human. Judge the fight correctly.”
Judges Julie Lederman (115-113), Ron McNair (115-113) and Robin Taylor (116-112) all scored their very competitive contest for Harrison last December 22 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. CompuBox credited Charlo for landing more punches overall than Harrison (160-to-128).
An angered Charlo continually questioned the judges’ scores following the only loss of his professional career. Charlo’s company is one of the promoters of Saturday’s show, but he said he didn’t take an active role in the selection of the judges for their rematch.
Nevertheless, Harrison isn’t confident about producing a second victory over Charlo if their rematch goes the distance.
“It’s gonna be super hard,” Harrison said. “It’s gonna be super hard because I seen this play already. I seen Ishe Smith fight Julian Williams, and I seen Ishe Smith, you know, rattle about the judges’ decision. … I think he had a right to rattle about the decision, because the scorecards was kinda wide, and I think he did a good job.
“Did he lose the fight? Yeah, he lost the fight. But, you know, I think he rattled about how wide the scorecards was. I immediately fought him next, in Vegas, and I got a split decision when I thought I dominated him, when I thought I did [everything]. If I did lose a round, maybe I lost one. I thought I dominated him, and it became a split-decision victory. Did I complain about it? Nah. On to the next.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing