Brian Castano has done his part to clear the air with the WBO.
As BoxingScene.com previously reported, a right biceps tear has forced Argentina’s Castano (17-0-2, 12KOs) to withdraw from a planned March 19 undisputed junior middleweight championship rematch with lineal/WBC/WBA/IBF champ Jermell Charlo (34-1-1, 18KOs) at Crypto.com Center in Los Angeles. The injury occurred earlier this month, reaching a point where the WBO junior middleweight titlist could no longer effectively train for the biggest fight of his career now just four weeks out.
It results in the lineal/WBA/WBC/IBF/WBO championship sequel suffering an untimely delay, along with the threat of at least one mandatory title defense being put into play as a result.
The development prompted a chain reaction, complete with the WBO issuing a ‘Show Cause’ to Castano’s team—manager Sebastian Contursi and TGB Promotions—as to why the delay shouldn’t prompt the sanctioning body to order a mandatory title fight. Castano and his team have been in contact with the WBO, doing their part to alleviate any concerns of attempting to stretch out his inactive period any longer than necessary.
BoxingScene.com has learned that Castano expressed a willingness to be examined by an independent medical office of the WBO and Tszyu’s choosing to further confirm the validity and extent of his injury. There are also issues with the letter submitted by No Limit Promotions, the promoter for Australia’s Tim Tszyu who declared a strong disinterest in waiting any longer for his due mandatory title shot.
WBO president Francisco ‘Paco’ Valcarcel announced in a tweet last November 17 of his interest in moving forward with a Castano-Tszyu fight, coming immediately after Tszyu’s twelve-round, unanimous decision win over Takeshi Inoue. Tszyu (20-0, 15KOs) advanced to the number-one position in the WBO 154-pound rankings and named as mandatory challenger last August 27, though with the understanding that an ordered title shot was entirely dependent on the status of Charlo-Castano II making its way to the boxing schedule.
Charlo and Castano fought to a disputed twelve-round, split decision draw last July 17 at AT&T Center in San Antonio. Judge Nelson Vazquez (117-111) was rightly criticized for his wide scorecard in favor of Charlo. Judge Steve Weisfeld (114-113) had Castano edging the entertaining championship fight while judge Tim Cheatham (114-114) had the action dead-even.
The outcome meant one of two things—an immediate rematch, or both fighters would have to commit to separate mandatory title defenses before once again turning to each other.
Bakhram Murtazaliev (19-0, 14KOs) has been the IBF mandatory since November 2019, having since agreed to back-to-back stay busy fights on the undercard of Charlo’s eighth round knockout of Jeison Rosario in their September 2020 lineal/WBC/WBA/IBF unification bout and Charlo-Castano I. The IBF has agreed to delay its ordering Charlo-Murtazaliev as long as both parties were in agreement and that no obstacles stood in the way of Charlo-Castano II.
Israil Madrimov (8-0, 6KOs) became the WBA mandatory following a controversial ninth-round stoppage of Michel Soro last December 17 in his home country of Uzbekistan. The WBC mandatory will be determined in the forthcoming clash between former title challenger Erickson Lubin and unbeaten Sebastian Fundora. The fight is tentatively scheduled for April 9, though could move with the rest of the springtime Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) schedule.
Tszyu was due to face Terrel Gausha on the March 19 undercard, with the understanding that he would get first dibs at either the winner of Charlo-Castano II or the WBO belt if it were to become vacant. The steps taken by his team suggest an effort to have Castano relieved of his title.
The strongly worded letter to the WBO by Matt Rose—director of operations for No Limit Boxing—upon learning of Castano’s injury suggested that they initially agreed to “defend the [WBO] Global title against Terrel Gausha on February 26 in Houston on the provisions of fighting the winner of the unification bout between Brian Castano v Jermell Charlo.
“This date however changed venues and locations to… 19 March in LA. However, nothing official was announced. We have been waiting the last two weeks for the official announcement of 19 March which was finally going to happen (Wednesday).”
The fight was in fact officially announced by PBC on February 3. A brief press release noted the official date and location, along with an alert for tickets going on sale and the arena tweeting out said information and posting the event on its website. Tickets have been on sale since February 4, with the alert picked up by publications around the world including in Australia.
The contention that the fight was scheduled for February 26 in Charlo’s hometown of Houston calls into question the means of any communication to Tszyu’s team confirming such plans. Castano and his team never agreed to that date and location, nor was it ever formally announced by PBC.
Rumors circulated of Showtime hosting events on February 19 and February 26. The official announcement instead revealed a February 26 tripleheader to be headlined by unbeaten junior lightweight Chris Colbert. The March 19 event announced by PBC did not include a network, nor details of the full undercard.
The next part of the letter suggests another conversation between TGB and No Limit Boxing of when to expect the event to be rescheduled.
“However, I received correspondence from TGB Promotions that Castano had been injured in sparring and would not be available until May/June for the unification bout,” alleged Rose. “Considering the information above we request that the championship committee enforce the mandate for Tim Tszyu to fight for the World Title.”
A representative from Castano’s team has publicly challenged that claim, insisting that “Brian Castano really wants to have a rematch against Charlo. He is still training hard so he can fight about four weeks after his scheduled 3/19 date. No fighter should be blamed because he had an injury.
“We ask that the rematch with Charlo be pushed back 4 weeks as Brian will be fit to fight in April. We never said May or June."
The most ambitious plans call for the rematch to possibly land on a working date of April 23, though the situation remains fluid and obviously compromised by the current status of the WBO’s willingness to sanction the fight.
Castano was forced to wait more than a year from the time of his due mandatory title shot versus then-WBO champ Patrick Teixeira. The fight was formally ordered by the WBO in December 2019 during its annual convention. The fight was due to take place April 25, 2020 only for the show to be canceled due to the first wave of the global pandemic.
Visa issues endured by Teixeira jeopardized the fight to the point of Castano’s side insisting on another purse bid hearing. Golden Boy. Promotions, Teixeira’s promoter won a November 2020 purse bid to retain rights to the fight which was rescheduled for last February 13 in Indio, California. Castano won by unanimous decision in what was the last enforced mandatory title fight in the junior middleweight division.
The fight came more than fifteen months after Castano’s previous ring appearance, who waited out the process to claim the title. The hope for the sake of divisional immortality is that a similarly sensible approach is taken in this case.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox