To say Jermell Charlo and Tony Harrison have bad blood between is an understatement. When they met for the first time, in December 2018, the back and forth battle culminated with Harrison’s hand raised in victory to become the new WBC super welterweight champion and Charlo stating his case that he’d been robbed in the outcome.
On Wednesday at The Conga Room in downtown Los Angeles, Charlo and Harrison came together once more to formally announce a rematch scheduled to take place at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on June 23rd.
Speaking to the media before the start of the press conference, Charlo picked up where he left off and maintained the position that he won their first meeting and was robbed, plain and simple.
The world already knows the robbery and the way things went. If you do the same thing [Harrison] and I do something different, I’m elite. I’m going to be better.
Tony knows exactly what happened in our fight. He knows he can’t beat me. I’m here to prove it again and leave no doubt.
Holding court in his own section of the room, Harrison, who emerged the champion, reiterated that he was found the winner by all three ringside judges and continues to be disappointed by the media commentary and fan reaction following his victory. He went on to add the tension between him and Charlo is real and it’s personal.
This fight is personal for me. What I’ve been through has made me who I am. I’m not a pretender. When I come out here and put my life on the line, and you put your life on the line, respect me as a man. I’m going to earn it again.
The animus continued once the fighters shared the stage and engaged in their first stare down since the last fight. During their respective addresses at the mic, Charlo said Harrison “f**ked up!” while Harrison called Charlo a “bum” and a “clown.”
For video from the press conference of the tense face-off, the explosions at the mic, plus the combatants unfiltered, flip the pages.