CHARLO DEFENDS TITLE, EUBANK VICTORIOUS IN U.S. DEBUT

WBC world middleweight champion Jermall Charlo defended his title by knocking out Dennis Hogan in the seventh round on Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. This was Charlo’s second successful title defense after being promoted to world champion in June.

The first round was a decent one for Hogan, as he tagged Charlo a few times with quick left hooks. But for the rest of the early rounds, Charlo found his rhythm and started to walk Hogan down, strafing him with clean right hands.

Then, in the fourth round, Charlo dropped Hogan hard with a left uppercut. Hogan was able to beat the count, but he was unable to avoid the power shots from Charlo from that point on, who was beginning to land with greater frequency.

Going into the middle rounds, Charlo continued to time Hogan with the left uppercut. Finally, in the seventh, Charlo found Hogan with a left hook to the chin, sending him down to the canvas for the second time in the fight.

Hogan was slow to get up, and when he did, he could barely walk straight. The body language of Hogan prompted referee Charlie Fitch to wave the fight off, giving Charlo his first knockout win in well over a year.

While Charlo was dispatching of Hogan, there was a particularly interested spectator at ringside: former world title challenger Sergey Derevyanchenko. Derevyanchenko is coming off of a controversial decision loss to Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in June. Many observers believe that Derevyanchenko deserved the decision.

The move by Showtime to interview Derevyanchenko during the fight suggests that he could be next in line for a shot at Charlo and his WBC belt.

2019 has been an unfortunate year for Hogan, as he also came up just short in his first world title shot against Jaime Mungia in April.

In the co-main event, Chris Eubank Jr. won the WBA interim middleweight title with a TKO victory over Matvey Korobov inside two rounds in his American professional debut. Korobov was unable to continue after sustaining an injury to his left shoulder.

Korobov began the fight by tagging Eubank repeatedly with the straight left hand to clearly win the first round. But in the second, Korobov turned his back to Eubank and retreated to one of the ring corners in obvious pain after attempting to throw another straight left.

Since he was unable to continue, Korobov lost the bout via TKO. Korobov has had an unfortunate last two years, as he had lost a controversial decision to Jermall Charlo in December of 2018 and followed that with a draw against Immanuwel Aleem in May.

To make matters worse for Korobov, Eubank appeared to be uninterested in a rematch during his post-fight interview with Showtime’s Jim Gray. Instead, he looks forward to fights with the other champions in the middleweight division.