By: William Holmes

By: William Holmes

The Toyota Arena in Ontario, California was the host site for tonight’s Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) offering on the fox network.

The main event of the night was a rematch between Tony Harrison (28-2) and Jermell Charlo (32-1) for the WBC Junior Middleweight Title.  The co-main event was supposed to feature Guillermo Rigondeaux and Liborio Solis in the bantamweight division, but visa issues for Solis forced that fight to be cancelled.

The undercard was televised on Fox Sports 1, and featured a split draw between Huge Centeno Jr. and Juan Macias Montiel. Oscar Escandon also fought on the undercard and stopped Jhack Tepora in the first round.

The first fight on the Fox network was a lightweight bout between Rene Tellez Giron (13-1) and Karlos Balderas (9-0). 

Balderas is a 2016 Olympian but was actually three years older than his young and hungry opponent.

Balderas was taller and longer than his opponent, and started off landing clean jabs to the head and body on a pressuring Giron.

Giron was able to land some good punches in their exchanges in the second round and continued to land hard shots in the third.  A vicious left hand by Giron sent Balderas to the mat at the end of the round, and he stumbled back to his feet and barely beat the count of ten.  He stumbled backwards when the referee asked him to walk forward, but was allowed to continue into the next round. 

Giron continued to stay on the attack in the fourth and fifth rounds and was staying dedicated with his body attacks.  By the end of the fifth Giron had outlanded Balderas by twenty more punches.

The sixth round started with an accidental headbutt warning from the referee.  Giron was able to knock Balderas down again with a clean left hook to the chin.  Balderas was able to get up to his feet before the count of ten, but the referee waived the fight off.

Rene Giron scores the upset with a KO at 2:59 of the sixth round.

The next bout was a heavyweight fight between Efe Ajagba (11-0) and Iago Kiladze (26-4-1). 

Ajagba stuck with his jab early and had Kiladze wobbled at the end of the first from a stiff right hand.

Ajagba was landing heavy shots on Kiladze and sent him to the mat at the end of the second from another straight right.  Kiladze was in bad shape at the end of the round and on rubber legs. 

The third round was the best round of the night, as Ajagba was looking to finish the fight and had Kiladze wobbled from a straight right hand, but Kiladze landed a right of his own out of nowhere and sent Ajagba down to the mat.  Ajagba was able to survive the round.

Both boxers landed good shots in the fourth round, but Ajagba appeared to land the heavier punches. 

Ajagba scored another knockdown in the fifth round, but Kiladze got back to his feet and was allowed to continue.  Kiladze stumbled around for a few seconds before his corner threw in the towel. 

Ajagba wins a thrilling bout by KO at 2:09 of the fifth round.

Tony Harrison (28-2) and Jermell Charlo (32-1) met in the main event for the WBC Junior Middleweight Title.

Harrison and Charlo couldn’t even look at each other during fighter introductions.

Charlo came out aggressively in the opening two rounds by throwing wild bombs with reckless abandon.  Harrison grabbed on whenever Charlo got in tight, but was clipped by a two punch combination that momentarily sent him down in the second.

Harrison was calm going into the third round and fought defensively and smartly.  Harrison landed better punches on the inside and surprisingly continued to fight well in tight into the fourth and fifth rounds.

Harrison started to showboat in the sixth rounds and was blocking a lot of Charlo’s punches.  Harrison was a more measured fighter in the middle rounds while Charlo was a little more wild.

It was a close bout going into the ninth round with Harrison backing Charlo down while Charlo was throwing heavier but not as accurate punches.

The championship rounds featured similar action, with Harrison landing measured punches and Charlo landing more looping but hard shots. 

However, Charlo landed a vicious hook to the chin of Harrison and sent him violently to the mat.  Charlo followed it up with several hard uppercuts on Harrison by the ropes and sent him to the mat again.  The referee decided to let Harrison continue, but Charlo pressed forward with combinations and forced the referee to stop the bout.

Jermell Charlo wins by TKO at 2:28 of the eleventh round.

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