Three-hundred and sixty-four days after their disputed title bout to close 2018, junior middleweights Tony Harrison and Jermell Charlo will finally have the rematch that helped spawn one of this year's most explosive rivalries.
Harrison (28-2, 21 KOs), who commandeered his WBC junior middleweight title via a unanimous decision that Charlo (32-1, 16 KOs) still protests to this day, will enter Saturday's sequel as the champion inside Toyota Arena in Ontario, California (FOX, 8 p.m. ET).
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The rematch was supposed to have taken place in June but Harrison, the 29-year-old native of Detroit, pulled out with an ankle injury. Charlo's subsequent suspicion as to whether Harrison was telling the truth helped take this heated feud to an entirely new level.
The passionate Charlo, who knocked out late replacement Jorge Cota in quick order in June, has been at Harrison's throat at every turn, including a colorful November press conference in Los Angeles and on the set of Fox's "PBC: Face to Face," which saw both fighters need to be separated once the cameras were turned off.
"[Saturday] can't come any faster. I can't wait until the world understands the truth about Mr. Harrison," Charlo told CBS Sports' "State of Combat" podcast on Monday. "He's a fraud. He manipulated the system. He ain't the real champ and I am. I'm the real champ.
"The [first] fight was easy and I felt like I won it. I still feel like I won it and the New York judges didn't agree with that so I have to come out and get another opportunity."
Charlo, a 29-year-old Houston native, appeared on the verge of crossover and pound-for-pound stardom when he met Harrison inside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn last December. His emotional reaction to the defeat drew immediate criticism from Harrison and began to build the foundation for the rematch.
"There is not a drop of love in my heart for him," Harrison told CBS Sports. "There is a lot of animosity and bad blood. There is only one way to settle that and that's to fight."
If the promotion ahead of their originally scheduled rematch in June wasn't explosive enough, Harrison pulling out shortly after only enraged Charlo to new levels. The twin brother of current WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo began to publicly accuse Harrison of everything from being scared to having been knocked out by sparring partners as a reason for his decision.
"He probably already had it preset in his mind that he was going to find a way to get out of this fight and he did," Charlo said. "He let his people down and he didn't do it the right way. He really wasn't injured. We are all boxers and we all go through things. This is a wear and tear sport. It puts a lot on our mind and bodies. Maybe the smallest excuse that he could've used, he used it. That's what got him out of the fight.
"I have no respect for him, for the move that he pulled. Any man who pulls out of a fight and talks all this talk with all that disrespect, I'm going to let you in on something. Tony faked that injury. He faked that injury and you all will see for yourself why I say that."
Harrison, who has rebounded nicely from stoppage defeats to Willie Nelson and Jarrett Hurd earlier in his career, has used Charlo's accusation of faking the injury as fuel to attempt to win the mental battle ahead of the rematch.
"I faked it. I'm telling you exactly what he said, that I faked it," Harrison said. "We need to make like a Char-ho Monopoly board and put Jermell on each end of the block because I'm living in his real estate. I'm living in his head and the best part for me is him trying to find a reason to say the things he is saying. I'm agreeing with it because it's all me playing a mind game. Boxing is mental and I am living in his head. I'm from Detroit, I'm not good at faking anything. Faking is something I wouldn't be doing.
It's because Harrison already believes he has won the mental battle that he feels the rematch will be even easier, despite Charlo having predicted a knockout win.
"I'm the most dangerous guy in the division," Harrison said. "I'm 6-foot-1, super fast, strong and I just carry all the attributes of a guy you really don't want to fight. I can do it all. I can box, I can brawl, I can come forward and fight off my back foot. I'm super tough mentally and there ain't no quit in me. I've got all the attributes to show why I'm the best in the division.
"I've got him over the edge and riled up and knowing he don't want to fight me in real life. Now it's just about capitalizing. I'm going to put a little more pressure and combinations together. I make him fight my fight. I make him fight at the pace I want. That's my best attribute. I'm the puppet master and I control you."
This card also features the return of heavyweight prospect Efe Ajagba when he battles Iago Kiladze of Georgia. Ajagba is coming off a less than stellar showing in July when he scored a unanimous decision win over Ali Eren Demirezen. It was the first fight of his pro career to reach the final bell.
Plus, 2016 U.S. Olympian Karlos Balderas takes on Rene Tellez Giron of Mexico in an eight-round lightweight fight to open the broadcast. The undefeated prospect is coming off a seventh-round TKO win over Robert Frankel in July. He, like Ajagba, has stopped all but one of the opponents he's faced.
Harrison vs. Charlo 2 odds
| Favorite | Underdog | Weightclass |
|---|---|---|
Jermell Charlo -350 | Tony Harrison (c) +280 | WBC junior middleweight title |
| Efe Ajagba | Iago Kiladze | Heavyweights |
| Karlo Balderas | Rene Tellez Giron | Lightweights |
Prediction
Expect emotions to play a big role in this fight, particularly for Charlo who is easily triggered. That doesn't necessarily suggest that fighting with anger will be a negative for him.
If there has been any criticism of Charlo in his biggest fights, it's that he cruises a bit too much and doesn't let his hands go enough if his opponent isn't bringing the fight to him. That was certainly an element of what allowed Harrison to remain competitive enough to take a decision.
Should Charlo decide to stalk Harrison and seek the emphatic victory he claims will happen, there's little question he has the right combination of size, speed and power to do just that, especially considering Harrison has been caught twice before in big fights.
Harrison is everything he says he is from the standpoint of being legitimately tough and a fighter who mixes in the attributes of boxer and brawler perfectly well. But if he wakes up the sleeping lion Charlo from the first fight, as the colorful promotion has suggested he has, the best version of Charlo might just be too much for him.
Pick: Charlo via KO7
