King wants to put together Berto vs. Kotelnik in November – News
August 13th, 2010
By Jason Kim: Promoter Don King is looking to put together a fight between World Boxing Council welterweight champion Andre Berto (26-0, 20 KO’s) and former WBA light welterweight champion Andriy Kotelnik (31-4-1, 13 KO’s) for November of this year, and wants the winner of that fight to fight the winner of the January 29th fight between IBF/WBC junior welterweight champion Devon Alexander vs. WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley.
Alexander has basically no chance against Bradley. In an article by Michael Marley at Examiner.com, King had this to say about Berto, Kotelnik, Bradley and Alexander: “I just spoke to HBO. Kotelnik can be ready for November, no problem. I’m keeping the kid here, keeping him at my training camp in Ohio. He trained there to fight Devon. That was a great fight last Saturday night in St. Louis but Devon won it.”
I think more than a few boxing fans will disagree with King about the winner of the Alexander vs. Kotelnik bout. But never the less, Alexander looked amateurish and was exposed by Kotelnik in that fight. King can try to whitewash the end results anyway he wants but the fact is Alexander looked poor and does not look to be in the same class as Bradley.
Alexander is obviously good enough to be a champion somewhere, but he’s going to lose both of his titles against Bradley. And I think Amir Khan would do a number on Alexander as well, as long as the fight wasn’t held in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Alexander can be a champion once those guys move out of the division, and provided that Alexander stays away from them and Marcos Maidana, who I think would knock Alexander out if given the chance.
King had this to say about whether Kotelnik can come back by November and fight again: “Hell, yes, we want that Berto fight.”
He may be able to come back, but I think he’s going to lose. Berto has too much size on Kotelnik for him to compete with him. But this is Berto’s third fight against a light welterweight since winning the WBC welterweight title in 2008.
I don’t know what it is but Berto keeps fighting junior welterweights for some reason. Out of the four times that he’s defending the title, two of them have come against smaller light welterweights.
I wonder if Berto is purposefully being steered towards smaller fighters. Heck, Berto might as well move down in weight to the junior welterweight division. Then he could really have at it.
Tags: 25 Responses to “King wants to put together Berto vs. Kotelnik in November – News”
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I’d rather see Berto vs Khan
Berto would wipe the floor with anyone in the lower weight Divisions. He belongs at welterweight. I think Don King plans to do what Arum is doing. Have Berto wipeout the other divisions in anticipation for a big fight with a big name.
Namely, Crackman, Mayweather, or possibly Martinez.
Kotelnik may not get stopped but he will get beat up the whole fight
berto needs to set up bout with paul williams at 147. if he can take that dood out it will force the best to look at him.
This ain’t utter rubbish…it is the truth. I can point to a fight in every premier fighter career that the fight has been close and maybe even controversal. But there hasn’t been know where as much criticism bethowed on fighter than there is now.
Honestly speaking the CHALLENGER didn’t take that belt FROM THE CHAMPION. You know that!!! Kotelnik is a VETERAN CHAMPION he should’ve took that belt if he wanted it. He fought in spurts, and yes when he decided to engage he was effective…but the KID OUTWORKED him. And no matter what venue they were at…all judges would’ve seen that.
@Jb: I’m not missing the point-you simply haven’t made a good one. Kotelnik landed MORE punches than Alexander, despite throwing LESS. Pacquiao landed MORE than Clottey, but at a LOWER percentage, because he threw WAY MORE punches. If Alexander had done the same thing to Kotelnik then we wouldn’t have seen Kotelnik land more than his opponent. Unlike Clottey, he wasn’t shut out of the fight, and the stats show this.
As for your assertion that he shouldn’t have hoped to squeeze by in the other guy’s home town-you’re simply advocating favouritism for the home fighter. If Kotelnik fought better than Alexander, then the results should reflect this, no matter how large the margin between the fighters. You’re basically saying ‘if he needs to fight a 7/10 to beat the guy, he needs to actually fight an 8/10 or a 9/10 for the judges to acknowledge it. What utter rubbish.
@ scotty1
Sorry Bro, you still missing the point.
Also, if you are the CHALLENGER is it up to you take that belt away from the CHAMPION??? Now honestly, do you think Kotelnik took that belt away from Alexander or just made it interesting despite the odds he was compared to the pugilists???
Same for Pacquaio and Clottey Fight, Clottey should have showed up. Kotelnik showed up alittle bit, but he didn’t take that strap away from Alexander. Come on what did he think, he’ll come to this man hometown and squeeze by…GTFOH.
@scotty1 and straightup
You are missing the point…what I am trying to establish is, like Pacquiao, Alexander stayed busy and wasn’t in any real trouble thru out the fight. And at the end of the fight Alexander still had some gas left in the tank.
This is what makes some fans finick and hypocritical, if any other fighter had fought Clottey that way, there would be a number of fans calling that fighter amatuerish. Especially if in the previous fight that fighter was disposing has opponents with no regards. That is HYPOCRITICAL and FINICKY!!!!
Is it me or is it people don`t want take no notice of:
KING DON`T WANT ANY PART OF AMIR KHAN.
I go by double standards!
judges will find a reason not to give Kotelnik the win.. They may say he has two arms or say he used his hands ..
Kotelniks big problem is judges and wanna be judges who think aggression wins over clean accurate head jarring shots.punches on upper arms and glancing grazing blows have no obvious effect,but look busy and that to some judges is enough.Good timing and effective punches should win.
Kotelnik is the only fighter it seems willing to fight anyone
could be intresting,@ $$££ all kotelnik can do is keep trying he aint the best but hes along way from being the worst imo
there is no point fighting berto, kotelnik will will win the fight but loose it on the cards.
@Jb: you make a semi-valid point about Pacquiao connecting at a low percentage against Clottey. Where your argument falls down though is that Pacquiao landed a greater number of punches than Clottey, & his high work rate effectively shut Clottey down-he (Clottey) was unable to retaliate effectively, & this was evident to anyone who watched that fight. By comparison; Kotelnik threw less than Alexander, yet landed at a higher percentage, and-which is most important, & different to Clottey vs Pacquiao-Kotelnik landed MORE blows than Alexander. Simple, really.
The welterweight division seems to be in a particularly high state of flux at the moment. The big names are preoccupied with other things, so I can’t really blame Berto for looking elsewhere to keep busy. I mean you have a guy like Paul Williams who seems prepared to come down in weight, so maybe they can make that happen.
An eventual match up between Berto and Bradley doesn’t sound bad either. Since Alexander is not flavour of the month at the moment not many people would argue with that. Bradley has already had a successful stint at WW so it should be fair.
What seems unfair is the out come of the Alexander-Kotelnik encounter. Kotelnik (and most people) think he was robbed, while it looks like open season on Alexander. The question is why are people not talking about a rematch?
Alexander Vs Kotelnik was the worst match up ever
why did devon fight the guy who lost all 12 rounds to Khan ? all he has done by fighting kotelnik is show that he is 1/2 the boxer that khan is
dont be surprised if devon doesnt fight bradley and instead khan steps in
i hate to see boxer fighting out of weight class. i wanna see a rematch with alexander vs kotelnik and berto vs collazo. both kotelnik & collazo lose close, questionable decision and they deserve a rematch. after that i would like to see berto vs pac man. that would be a high octane fight.
@shut up meg, berto vs kel brook would be a brilliant fight i would really like to see that happen
Don King, Bob Arum, CANCER. Which is the odd one out? None of them.
How about Matching Beto up with a fellow Welterweight and Kotelnik up with a Light Welterweight? Like in the good old days.
How about Berto v Britains Kel Brook if he beats Micheal Jennings in September.
How about Kotelnik v Alexander seeing as only about 4 people in the world thought Alexander won the last fight, and that 4 people doesnt include Alexander or any of his corner team.
Kotelnik won that fight last week with hard accurate punching while Devon just threw a ton of arms punches. They should be fighting a rematch because I think Berto will be too strong for Kotelnik. I also feel that Bradley is too strong for Devon, but because of the height and reach advantage it should be very close. Berto isn’t the busiest figher so I could see him losing a close decision if he doesn’t come ready.
Berto FIRST needs to rematch Collazo. IF he gets by him, then yeah I give him more respect. Til then? Nah. Just a paper champ IMO.
As for Kotelnik vs Berto… hey DON KING, I’m calling you out! WHY do you pay off everybody so your chump wins?? What, no balls to answer Punchy, the king of all boxing analysts? You suck King, and should be taken down by the US Justice Dept for FIXING FIGHTS!!! Jerk!
BERTO IS BEING GROOMED LIKE KHAN, TO ONLY FIGHT WEAK AND SMALL FIGHTERS!!
why not? a good test for Berto.callazo was.
Some people forgets, every fight is not the same and STYLES MAKE FIGHT!!!
How many of these writer/fans have actually boxed in Boxing Match??? i mean fans/writers speak as if they know exactly how these fighters felt or experience in the ring and they’ll do it different if they were in there.
Thats like my 2 yr old questioning my driving skills…lol