The rematch for the undisputed super welterweight title of the controversial draw between Jermell Charlo and Brian Castaño will be the headliner of nine shows over the next four months on Showtime, the network announced on Tuesday.
Charlo and Castaño will meet in the main event of a May 14 card in Los Angeles that also features highly touted power-puncher Jaron Ennis against Custio Clayton in an IBF welterweight title eliminator.
“We’re thrilled we can keep this on Showtime,” said Stephen Espinoza, president of Showtime Sports. “It’s the biggest non-pay-per-view event of the year and certainly one of the most meaningful fights for the undisputed championship, with an interesting welterweight eliminator (between Ennis and Clayton) in the co-feature.”
Charlo and Castaño fought to a split draw on July 17 in San Antonio. One judge had it even, another had Charlo by the incredibly wide score of 117-111 and the other had Castaño 114-113.
The rematch was postponed from earlier this year when Castaño suffered a biceps injury.
Ennis is 28-0 with 26 knockouts and will face perhaps his toughest test when he meets Clayton, nicknamed “The War Machine.” Clayton is 19-0-1 with 12 knockouts.
The first bout of the series will be on March 26 and will feature Tim Tszyu, the son of Hall of Famer Kostya Tszyu, in a super welterweight bout in Minneapolis against former U.S. Olympian Terrell Gausha.
The crazy nature of boxing will be on display on April 9 in Las Vegas. Even though Charlo and Castaño are fighting for the undisputed 154-pound title, the main event of Showtime’s card from the Virgin Hotels will pit Erickson Lubin and Sebastian Fundora for the interim WBC 154-pound title.
So the winner of Charlo versus Castaño will be the undisputed 154-pound champion, except a month earlier, Lubin and Fundora will fight for a 154-pound belt.
As Showtime previously announced, Errol Spence Jr. and Yordenis Ugas will meet in a IBF-WBA-WBC welterweight unification bout on April 16 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. On the undercard, the co-main event will feature a WBA welterweight title bout — we can’t make this up, it’s boxing — between Radzhab Butaev and Eimantas Stanionis.
On May 21 on Showtime in Phoenix, David Benavidez will face David Lemieux for the interim WBC super middleweight title.
Showtime will be back to Minneapolis on June 4 for what should be a lights out super bantamweight title bout when Stephen Fulton Jr. meets Danny Roman for the WBO-WBC 122-pound belts.
Jermall Charlo will defend his WBC middleweight title on June 17 against Maciej Sulecki.
And on July 9 in San Antonio, newly crowned WBC featherweight champion Mark Magsayo will face Rey Vargas in his first title defense.