At a joint called The Bomb Factory, it was Jermall Charlo who brought the munitions—namely, a 20-megaton jab that cratered yet another opponent.
Charlo vs Campfort highlights: November 28, 2015
In his first title defense, Jermall Charlo (23-0, 18 KOs) broke down Wilky Campfort (21-2, 12 KOs) without breaking much of a sweat on Saturday in Dallas, remaining undefeated with a fourth-round technical knockout.
Charlo claimed a 154-title in September by flooring former champ Cornelius “K9” Bundrage with his jab, one of four knockdowns Charlo scored on his way to a third-round TKO win.
It’s one of those punches capable of a draining an opponent’s confidence as swiftly as the contents of a shot-gunned brew.
“I know one thing: My jab has power,” Charlo said from his locker room after the fight. “And I’m going to use it.”
Once again, Charlo proved just how powerful that jab can be, using it to drop Campfort in Round 2.
Campfort is at his best when coming forward and firing power punches, but the native of Haiti who fights out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, could never get his offense going against the longer, bigger Charlo.
When his corner implored him to throw more punches after Round 1, Campfort seemed just plain overwhelmed—and/or spooked by the champ’s devastating jab.
“He’s strong,” Campfort told his trainer in response.
Yup.
Soon enough, Charlo began displaying that strength in earnest, using the jab to set up hard left hands. In a demonstration of just how fast his hands were, Charlo started pistoning his jab, then immediately followed up with a left hook to Campfort's body, landing two punches before his opponent could counter once.
The numbers tell the story: Charlo scored with 21 jabs in Round 2 alone; Campfort connected with his jab a single time all afternoon—in 54 attempts.
The following round, Charlo once again sent Campfort to the canvas after buzzing him with a left hand followed by a hard right uppercut.
It would be another uppercut, this time from Charlo’s left hand, that would close the show in Round 4. The Houston resident landed it flush on Campfort’s right eye, forced the 31-year-old challenger to take a knee.
Campfort made it to his feet quickly, but his vision was so impaired that he couldn’t continue.
As a result, referee Mark Calo-Oy called the fight, giving Charlo a TKO victory—the 25-year-old’s 16th stoppage win in his last 17 bouts.
Already, there’s talk of Charlo moving up in weight and campaigning at 160 pounds, though he seems more inclined to clean out his current division first.
“I think I got one [more] fight at ’54,” he said. “I’m a force to be reckoned with, obviously. I’ve been called out by a couple of world champions, but it’s just all about working, you know?”
Speaking of which, pretty much everything worked against Campfort, who was like a wiffle ball tossed underhand—in other words, he was there to be hit.
“Once I got comfortable, that’s it all it took,” Charlo said. “[Campfort] did everything I thought he was going to do. I study well, and I perform better.”
OK, but did Campfort do anything that surprised him, even a little?
“He surprised me by signing the contract,” Charlo quipped without missing a beat.
Even after the one-sided fight was over, the champ was still firing jabs.
For complete coverage of Charlo vs Campfort, visit our fight page.
Jermall Charlo earned his 16th stoppage in his last 17 fights with a fourth-round TKO of Wilky Campfort on Saturday in Dallas. (Suzanne Teresa/Premier Boxing Champions)
