There has been nothing conventional about the journey that Houston native and WBC Middleweight champ Jermall Charlo has been on the last 30 months. The 33-year-old Houstonian missed weight badly and was not defending his title against a much smaller Jose Benavidez jr at a contracted catchweight. However, in the ring, it was business as usual for the champ, who easily and decisively took care of business. Charlo shook off a little rust and got cooking on his way to a wide unanimous decision by scores of 100-90, 99-91, 98-92 and improved his record to 33-0 (22).
The Texan gets caught with a right hand about 45 seconds into his return, and then another one comes with just about 60 seconds left in the opening stanza, causing the boxing world to begin to wonder if perhaps the layoff was too long or perhaps he bit off my then he could chew in choosing Benavidez as his comeback opponent. However, Charlo scored with a big right hand late in the opening round and began to build off that. The Texan scored with an uppercut that hurt his man late in the second, and Charlo was off to races. He dominated the majority of the fight with an excellent jab and mixing in his right hand and left hook. Benavidez had some moments scattered throughout the scheduled ten-rounder, but nothing was extremely effective, and most of his flurries missed the mark. Charlo dominated a somewhat competitive affair, and with about a minute left, he went for the stoppage. Charlo stunned his exhausted opponent with a right hand that drove Benavidez into the ropes with about 45 seconds to go in their fight. About 20 seconds later, referee Harvey Dock grabbed Charlo and warned him of some rule violation that wasn't apparent to anyone watching the fight besides Dock. This caused about 15 seconds to tick off the clock and allowed Benavidez to survive the final bell.