Jermell Charlo had just dropped Tony Harrison for the third time in their rematch, and he was up on the ring ropes in full celebration mode.
"That's the second time that happened to me in my career," Charlo told Fox Sports during the postfight interview about celebrating a victory prematurely. "I thought it was over.
"It wasn't over yet , but Charlo made sure it would end moments later. He rushed Harrison with a barrage of punches until the referee stopped the action and rewarded Charlo with an 11th-round TKO that made him a two-time WBC junior middleweight champion. Charlo's victory at Toyota Arena in Ontario, Calif., on Saturday night also allowed the Houston native to exact revenge for their original clash, which Harrison won by a controversial unanimous decision in December 2018.
"I didn't leave it up to the judges!" Charlo exclaimed in the ring following his victory.
He sure didn't. Charlo first dropped Harrison with a left hook across the jaw in the second round, but the Detroit native showed major championship pedigree by walking Charlo down for a majority of the rounds that followed and peppering him with razor-sharp punches.
DAZN News had Harrison up on the scorecards entering the 11th before Charlo caught "Super Bad" slipping and made him pay with a left hook that sent him to the canvas. Charlo added a right hand followed by three left uppercuts — the third of which seemed to have Harrison nearly knocked out on his feet against the ropes. A left hand and a right hook next, and Harrison was down, hard, for the second time in the 11th.
That's when Charlo dashed toward the ring ropes to celebrate prematurely. Seconds later, he finished the show by landing a right hand, a left uppercut and another right hand before unloading a barrage of punches. Harrison immediately contested the referee's stoppage, but didn't persist during his postfight interview with Fox.
"He earned it," Harrison said of Charlo's victory. "I hate it. He earned it."
Charlo did go over to Harrison, and the bitter rivals shook hands after a year's worth of bad blood and back-and-forth trash talk.
Charlo said he wanted to show good sportsmanship, "but at the end of the day, I don't like the dude, period."
Co-main event: Efe Ajagba def. Iago Kiladze by fifth-round TKO; heavyweights
Ajagba dropped Kiladze with a right hand in the second round, but the game Kiladze surprised him with a counter right that made Ajagba taste the canvas in the third. Ajagba refused to let the fight turn into a war, however, and he rocked Kiladze with a right uppercut in the fifth to drop him for the second time. He then poured it on with thudding shots until Kiladze's corner got up on the apron moments later to stop the fight.