Berto Crushes Trabant

By Boxing News - 02/11/2008 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: In a fight that some people thought might be competitive going into the bout, undefeated knockout artist welterweight contender Andre Berto (21-0, 18 KOs) destroyed Michel Trabant (43-3-1, 19 KOs) in six brutal rounds on Saturday night at the Pechanga Resort & Casino, in Temecula, California. Trabant, 29, a fighter with an impressive record built on fighting mostly weaker competition in Germany, gave up after the sixth round due to the tremendous punishment that he had sustained during the course of the fight.

Berto, 24, landed huge shots, right hands, uppercuts, hooks and straight rights, pounding Trabant without stop from the first round until the end of the sixth. It was never remotely close, as Trabant was overmatched from the start of the fight due to his lack of power, and almost nonexistent defense. For Berto, who had struggled in his last two bouts, getting hurt by weak punching David Estrada and Cosme Rivera, it was a welcome break for him, a chance to look good once again.

Boxing fans and writers had been questioning the 24 year-old undefeated Berto’s chin due to his lackluster performances in his last two bouts, and this was a chance for Berto to show what he can do against a fighter with zero power. In many ways, Berto reminds one of a young Meldrick Taylor, before he met up with the great Julio Cesar Chavez, who subsequently stopped him and changed the course of a once promising career.

Berto shows the same speed that Taylor did, and appears, at least in the last two previous fights, to have a questionable chin. However, Trabant wasn’t one to test it on Saturday night, and ended up taking a terrible beating from Berto.

In the first round, Berto landed a series of hard combinations to the head of Trabant, mixing it uppercuts and hooks to keep him guessing. Trabant seemed almost at a loss what to do against Berto, other than take the shots, because he threw almost zero punches in the first round – or any of the others, for that matter. This is unusual for Trabant, who usually had a good workrate. However, when he did attempt to land, Berto would use the opportunity to land huge counter shots.

Berto continued to land effectively in rounds two and threw, and if anything, he began to land even more as the crowd got into the fight. Trabant, for his part, became almost a spectator, as he did little in either round. His face began to turn red around the eyes by this time from the many blows he had taken from Berto. However, at least he hadn’t been cut as of yet, which is often a problem for Trabant in past fights.

In the 5th round, Berto staggered Trabant with a big right uppercut. However, he quickly regained his poise, and didn’t go down from a flurry of shots that followed. However, you could see that the fight wouldn’t likely go long by this point, for Berto was totally fearless of Trabant, walking in on a straight line and throwing combinations. Against a better fighter than Trabant, one with power, Berto would have been nailed, and possibly knocked out, with his disregard of defense. Trabant, however, was in no position to hurt anyone even if he tried.

In the 6th round, Berto was all over Trabant, hitting him with sustained two-three punch combinations, and getting nothing thrown back at him. In all, Trabant attempted one punch in the round, while taking countless shots, mostly to the head. It was a miracle that Trabant didn’t go down in the round, for he was hit a massive amount of times. Perhaps knowing he had no chance in the fight, Trabant called it quits, telling referee Raul Caiz Jr. that he’d had enough at the end of the 6th round.

It was a good win for Berto, ranked #1 in the World Boxing Council and #2 in the International Boxing Federation welterweight division, yet it tells us nothing about how good Berto is as a fighter to the poor quality of Trabant. Like former WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams, we’ll not know how good Berto is until he finally faces a good opponent with both power and boxing skills, someone like Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Kermit Cintron, Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley or Joshua Clottey.

Berto might be able to beat one or two of those fighters, but it’s hard to tell because of how poor he looked against Rivera and Estrada. To be sure, he has the power and speed to be a champion, but his questionable chin and leaky defense, make him doubtful. I especially don’t like his chances against Cotto, Mayweather and Margarito. Clottey, Cintron and Mosley are winnable fights for him, if his chin holds up. However, he’d take a tremendous beating from either of them due to Berto’s lack of defense.