Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas – Jermall Charlo returned to the ring for the first time in 29 months with a spirited performance against a very game and durable José Benavidez Jr., the older brother of David Benavidez in their 10-round non-title bout contracted at 163 pounds.
Charlo, who holds the WBC middleweight title, was the much larger man, and he pushed Benavidez around the ring with his pole-like jab and hard right hands. It all added up to a wide decision for Charlo by scores of 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92 as Charlo remained undefeated at 33-0 with 22 KOs, while Benavidez dropped to 28-3-1 with 19 KOs.
Charlo weighed in at 166.4 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in, compared to Benavidez at 161.2 pounds, but the fight was allowed to continue after both camps agreed. Charlo landed 116 of 334 total jabs for a 35% connect-rate and landed 127 of 279 power punches for a 46% clip.
Benavidez, who was stopped by Terence Crawford in the 12th round for a welterweight title in 2018 and was an amateur prodigy, performed well against the larger foe, displaying a solid chin.
“He’s a good fighter, I’m not going to make any excuses,” Benavidez said. “I came to fight. He said he was going to back me up and I didn’t back up. I kept coming forward. The best man won tonight. It’s boxing. I thought it was way closer than [what] the judges said it was. At the end of the day, I lost, and I’m not going to make any excuses. I don’t know if his extra weight had anything to do with it. Maybe. Maybe not. I came prepared. I gave my best.”
Charlo hurt Benavidez with a straight right hand toward the end of the first round after Charlo started slowly, the result of his long layoff. Charlo landed a sharp right uppercut midway through the second. Benavidez tagged Charlo to start the third with a jab-right hand combination, but Charlo responded with an overhand right that snapped Benavidez’s head back with a minute left in the frame, and Charlo unloaded on Benavidez in the fourth as Benavidez covered up under Charlo’s heavy jabs and lefts.
Charlo snapped Benavidez’s head back with a right uppercut with 40 seconds left in the sixth, and Charlo hurt Benavídez in the 10th round with a snappy right, as the two exchanged words and eventually buried the bad blood between them when the fight was over and embraced.