Jermell Charlo may not have knocked out Austin Trout like he wanted, but still managed to retain his WBC junior middleweight title.
Charlo and Trout went the distance in the co-main event of the June 9 Showtime Championship Boxing fight at the Staples Center, with Charlo coming out on top with a majority decision win. Charlo won with scores of 118-108 and 115-111 on two of the judges' scorecards while a third judge had the fight scored even 113-113.
The WBC champion managed to get the win thanks to two knockdowns, one in the third and one in the ninth round, to pull away in the cards. The first knockdown came when Charlo landed a right hand followed by a counter left to knock Trout off balance and went down as he appeared to also be slipping.
The second knockdown came in the opening seconds of the ninth round when a left hand thrown by Charlo hit the back part of Trout's head and Trout went down. Despite replays showing the punch should have been ruled illegal, the referee originally ruled it a knockdown. After the fight, Charlo was somewhat disappointed to not get the knockout victory, but still was satisfied with picking up the win and making a third successful title defense.
"Sometimes you knock them out, sometimes you just beat them. I went to fish, I tried to get some trout but I couldn't catch him on the hook. I know they're used to seeing me knock boys out but at least they saw me take care of business," Charlo said.
Trout, on the other hand, believed he had won the fight had it not been for the knockdowns. Trout has now fought both Charlo twins with Trout losing to Jermell's twin brother Jermall back in 2016. Trout also went the distance against Jermall, losing to him by unanimous decision in an IBF junior middleweight title fight.
"Take those knockdowns away I won the fight," Trout said.
As far as what is next for Charlo, he called out unified WBA and IBF champion Jarrett Hurd to a three-belt unification. The two boxers fought on the same card last October with Hurd beating Trout and Charlo knocking out Erickson Lubin. Hurd unified the WBA and IBF titles in his last fight when he defeated Erislandy Lara.