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Jermell Charlo had a difficult time figuring out a surprise approach from John Jackson tonight in Las Vegas, but overcame frustration to keep plugging away and score an eighth round TKO, winning the vacant WBC junior middleweight title.
Jackson (20-3, 15 KO) was able to box and move effectively in the fight, and led 68-65 on our unofficial scorecard, as well as Steve Farhood's card on Showtime. And on the official cards, Jackson had an even wider lead, at 69-64 across the board.
Charlo (28-0, 13 KO) struggled badly to cut off the ring, admitting that he was trailing in the fight and was surprised by Jackson's approach.
"I was behind. He was boxing, he was moving around a lot. That was unexpected from him. I thought that he was gonna come out to bang, come out to brawl, and I had to make an adjustment, and I did," Charlo told Jim Gray.
The finish came when Charlo caught Jackson with a good shot that dazed him, and Jackson pawed at his face, saying he was trying to adjust his mouthpiece. When he turned away, Charlo hit him again with a flush left hook, and Tony Weeks jumped in to stop the fight, as Jackson had stopped protecting himself.
"I felt like I was ahead, and I came up short. He caught me with a punch and I was trying to fix my mouthpiece, and he turned and hit me again and dazed me. I wasn't knocked out, but he dazed me," Jackson told Jim Gray. "It dazed me, but I wasn't knocked out. It's boxing, man. It was a great fight. Taking nothing from him, I felt like I was winning the fight, and that happened."
With the win by Jermell, he and twin brother Jermall are currently both titleholders in the same weight class. Jermall defends his IBF title shortly against Austin Trout.
The punch stats don't really tell the story at all in this fight, but here they are, anyway. Charlo landed 30 of 89 power punches (34%) and 46 of 203 total punches (23%), while Jackson landed 28 of 122 of his power shots (23%) and 38 of 224 total punches (17%).