By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten WBC World Jr. Middleweight Champion Jermell Charlo of Richmond, Texas will be defending his title against Tony Harrison of Detroit, Michigan at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York this Saturday, December 22nd. The 12-round tilt can be seen live in the USA on Fox and Fox Deportes. Charlo last fought in June when he beat former world champion Austin Trout by majority decision. Harrison’s last action took place in May when he beat Ishe Smith by a 10-round split decision. Charlo won the vacant title in May, 2016 when he stopped John Jackson in the eighth round and this will be his fourth defence.
The 28-year-old Charlo will climb into the ring with a perfect record of 30-0 along with 15 Kos. He stands 5-feet-11-inches tall and has a reach of 73 inches. He turned pro back in 2007 and has boxed 200 rounds since then. Charlo doesn’t have as much power as his twin brother Jermall as his current knockout ratio is just 48 percent. But one of the reasons for this could be the better grade of opponent he’s faced up to now such as Trout, John Jackson, Joachim Alcine, Vanes Martirosyan, Gabriel Rosado, Demetrius Hopkins, Harry Joe Yorgey, Charles Hatley and Erickson Lubin.
Charlo typically relies on his slick boxing skills to win fights, but has enough power to stop a foe with an accumulation of well-placed and timed punches, which is what he did with former world champ Alcine. Although he has slick boxing skills, Charlo isn’t usually an overly-exciting boxer to watch. Up to now he’s been just a little bit too good for the opposition and the bouts haven’t resulted in much action or drama. Hopefully for the fans things will be a bit different against Harrison on Saturday night.
Harrison is 28 years old and climbs into the ring with a mark of 27-2 along with 21 Kos. He’s got quite a bit of power with a knockout ratio of 72 per cent and his chin’s questionable since he’s been stopped in both of his losses. These came at the hands of Jarrett Hurd in the ninth round February of 2017 for the vacant IBF Title and to Willie Nelson in the ninth round of their July 2015 fight. Harrison’s boxed 116 rounds since turning pro in 2011. He’s a good sized junior middleweight at 6-feet-1-inch tall with a reach of 76.5 inches.
This will give him a two-inch height advantage over Charlo along with a 3.5-inch edge in reach. Harrison’s best wins have been against Smith, Paul Valenzuela Jr, Siarhei Rabchanka, Fernando Guerrero, Antwone Smith, Bronco McKart, Grady Brewer and Calvin Odom. He’s struggled a bit when moving up in class and while he’s a good boxer with power he isn’t really on the elite level. He should be competitive against Charlo this weekend though.
Prediction…
Charlo’s probably a but underrated when it comes to skills and power and he should have enough to take care of Harrison. However, he does need to be wary of his opponent’s power. At the end of the day I’m expecting Charlo to leave the ring with his title belt still wrapped around his waist.
