On a night that was supposed to belong to the Charlo Twins, Jermell's evening ended on perhaps the sourest note possible, losing his world title to Tony Harrison in controversial fashion.
In the co-main event of a PBC on FOX card from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Charlo lost his WBC junior middleweight title to Harrison. Harrison picked up the victory by unanimous decision (116-112, 115-113, 115-113).
The fight was mostly a battle between Charlo's power and Harrison's ability to keep Charlo's power in check with the jab. There were several moments in the fight where Charlo had Harrison on the ropes, including late in the fight when Charlo stunned Harrison in the opening seconds of the final round. When the final result was announced, the crowd at the Barclays Center collectively erupted in jeers towards the fact that Harrison had just won his first world title.
The CompuBox stats showed that Charlo was the more active fighter and outlanded Harrison. Charlo connected on 160 of his 548 total punches (29 percent) while Harrison landed 128 of 377 punches (34 percent). In terms of power punches, Charlo outlanded Harrison 108 to 71.
The fight was Charlo's first of his career and a major setback in what was supposed to be his plan to eventually unify the WBC title with WBA and IBF champion Jarrett Hurd. The two had hinted at a unification fight in 2019 after Charlo stepped into the ring to confront Hurd after his victory over Jason Welborn on December 1.
Now those plans appear to be in tatters for the moment until Charlo recovers the WBC title. There is a rematch clause in place and given the nature of the end result, it is possible and even likely that Charlo and Harrison will do battle once more sometime in 2019.