WBO junior middleweight champion Brian Castano received words of encouragement from the man regarded by many as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez.

During a video call that was filmed by Little Giant Boxing, Canelo gave Castano praise for his recent performance.

Castano fought to a twelve round split draw with WBC, WBA, IBF junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo at AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.

One judge saw Castano as the winner with a score of 114-113, with another handing down a score of 117-111 for Charlo, and a draw of 114-114 by the third scoring official. No undisputed champion was crowned and both boxers walked away with their respective titles.

There was a lot of drama in the fight, with Castano getting stung early on and rallying back to rock the legs of Charlo. In a give and take fight, Charlo turned the tide when he badly hurt Castano and had the Argentine boxer in serious trouble. Castano was able to recover by the following round and continued to create fireworks with Charlo until the final bell.

"Brian Castano, I'll tell you one thing. For me, you won. They [the judges] saw a draw but for me you won, you bastard, what a great fight. I congratulate you very much," Canelo said.

And Castano replied - "Thank you very much, brother."

An immediate rematch with Charlo does not appear likely, as the sanctioning bodies are almost certain to order mandatory defenses in the near future. Bakhram Murtazaliev, who fought on the Charlo-Castano undercard, is the IBF's mandatory challenger and his title shot is overdue.