Hours after his twin brother Jermall Charlo defended his WBC middleweight title against Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Jermell Charlo (32-1, 16 KOs) successfully unified the WBA, WBC, and IBF junior middleweight belts with an eighth-round KO of Jeison Rosario (20-2-1, 14 KOs).
Charlo entered Saturday’s Showtime PPV main event as the WBC champion, whereas Rosario was the unlikely unified WBA and IBF champion thanks to his shocking upset win over Julian Williams in January. While Jermell was favored significantly, observers knew better than to count out Rosario a second time.
It looked as if it would be an extra early night for the Dominican fighter went Charlo hurt him with a left hook to the temple and staggered him to the canvas just 50 seconds into the opening round.