Nov 15, 2019

  • Dan RafaelESPN Senior Writer

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    • 2013 BWAA Nat Fleischer Award winner for excellence in boxing journalism
    • ESPN.com battle writer since 2005
    • Five years at U.s.a. Today

Junior middleweight earth titlist Tony Harrison and former titleholder Jermell Charlo might have been at only the kickoff news conference for their rematch that is still more than five weeks away, but their smoldering intensity gave off the vibe of fight week on Thursday.

Harrison and Charlo came face to face up in Los Angeles at an intense news conference in which they chosen each other names and dropped numerous naughty words but the message was clear: They can't look to dial each other come fight night in the main issue of a Premier Boxing Champions tripleheader Dec. 21 (Trick and Fox Deportes, 8 p.yard. ET) at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.

When they offset met, final Dec. 22 in Brooklyn, New York, Harrison was awarded a unanimous determination -- 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113 -- to take Charlo's 154-pound earth title, but many believed Charlo was the rightful winner.

Almost a yr later, the crux of Charlo's beef -- other than that he is convinced he was robbed of his belt last twelvemonth -- is his belief that Harrison faked an talocrural joint injury that postponed the rematch, which was originally scheduled to have place June 23 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

About three weeks before the fight, PBC announced that Harrison had withdrawn from the tour after suffering an inner and outer right ankle sprain that included torn ligaments.

Charlo went ahead and fought June 23 confronting late replacement Jorge Cota, whom he knocked downwardly twice and stopped in the third round of a dominant performance.

Charlo told Harrison to his face what he thought most his postponing the June fight.

"Dec. 22 was the twenty-four hour period they made a decision to requite Tony a victory," Charlo said, standing at the microphone and looking at Harrison, who was seated next to the podium. "Yous saw what I did to Cota on June 23 and you saw what I was going to go ready to do to your donkey.

"Y'all faked that injury. He wasn't ready. He wasn't ready for what I was getting to deliver to him. The sport is rough. It does wear and tear on the body. You didn't have surgery. June 3 you was supposed to exist having surgery on your ankle. DeAndre Ware was 1 of your sparring partners up there in Detroit. He clipped y'all. Dropped you. You was out. Maybe y'all had to regroup in your heed. Go along information technology real."

Harrison smiled and told Charlo, "I'm hither right now."

Charlo (32-one, xvi KOs), 29, of Houston, continued with his remarks, vowing to win back the chugalug he had successfully defended 3 times before losing it to Harrison.

"The judges that gave him the outset fight woke me upwardly," Charlo said. "Information technology'south motivating me. I'm past all the talking. I don't demand to talk trash about him. Zip'due south going to make me boring down. I'thousand going to motion forward and I did. I went on and fought [Cota] and showed anybody what I do. You see why I'm that guy.

"I have to prove a bespeak. He has to show a betoken. Let it be what it is. I have no problem with that. All of the talking doesn't matter. He'southward going to take to alive upward to his word and I'm going to live upwards to mine. It would be great to get a knockout, but we're down to become 12. I'll become to fifteen. It doesn't matter. He can't stand to me in there and hurt me. He's running scared. I'k for real about this. I know that I won that first fight and I'grand going to do things in a more dominant fashion this fourth dimension. I'yard going to exist overpowering and ferocious. It will be the best Jermell Charlo. My plan is to show everyone that Tony Harrison is not on my level."

Harrison (28-2, 21 KOs), 29, of Detroit, lost his first shot at a world title when Jarrett Hurd stopped him in the 9th circular of a vacant title bout in 2017, merely he has won four fights in a row since.

He did not have kindly to Charlo'due south accusation of him faking the ankle injury.

"Every time I see this man I just feel like he's pretending," Harrison said. "He's convinced anybody he's the toughest guy in the earth. He is 1 of the softest I have seen in my life. Like literally. He get up here and bark and he talk. He make excuses. 'Oh, you know I won this. Oh, you know I won that.' Come on, homo. I beat your ass the first time and I'yard hither once more. I don't where he's getting this, 'Oh, you're scared.'

"If I was scared, I wouldn't be here right now. I didn't take no fight in between. I haven't fought for a year, merely I wanted to be put correct back in information technology. Permit me get get this unfinished concern.

"I could beat out him anywhere, information technology doesn't matter. We could fight in this room correct now. Nothing is going to change. There's no respect. I'g going to prove him each and every time. I'm not the 1 to play with. This isn't Jorge Cota. His words definitely sparked the fuel in me that's on fire at present. He talks loud, but he'south non going to do annihilation. He doesn't have the skill set to beat me."