Junior middleweight contender Jermell Charlo took another nice step in his development, defeating rugged Gabriel Rosado by a unanimous decision on the Lamont Peterson-Dierry Jean card Saturday in Washington, D.C.

Rosado (23-8, 13 knockouts) stalked Charlo (23-0, 11 KOs) from the opening bell but Charlo, the quicker and slicker of the two, avoided the vast majority of Rosado’s punches and consistently countered with hard, accurate shots of his own.

To make matters worse for Rosado, he was cut above his left eye in the fifth round – apparently from a clash of heads – and it bled the remainder of the fight.

The scores were 97-93, 99-91 and 100-90, all in favor of Charlo.

Charlo is on the cusp of his first opportunity to fight for a world title.

Rosado failed in a fourth consecutive fight to beat an undefeated opponent. He was stopped by Gennady Golovkin in January of last year, lost a decision to J’Leon Love that was later declared a no-contest because Love tested positive for a banned diuretic and lost on a cut to Peter Quillin in October.

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