Berto-Hernandez: Is Andre ripe to get beaten?

By Jason Kim: WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (26-0, 20 KO’s) has a tough bout ahead of him this Saturday night against once beaten welterweight contender Freddy Hernandez (29-1, 20 KO’s) on the undercard of the Juan Manuel Marquez – Michael Katsidis bout at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Berto, 27, is expected to win this fight, but it’s surely not a given under any circumstances considering how poor Berto has looked in fights against Steve Forbes, Luis Collazo and Juan Urango since capturing the vacant World Boxing Council welterweight belt in 2008.

It is a good thing at least that Berto is fighting a welterweight at least for this title defense because two out of the four title defenses that Berto has made since capturing the belt has been against smaller light welterweights that have been asked to move up in weight to fight Berto. This has allowed Berto to easily win some of his fights but at a cost of turning off boxing fans because of the apparent mismatches. It’s kind of like cherry picking in a way. It’s a trade off because while it has allowed Berto to get a couple of easy title defenses, it’s cost him in winning fans or keeping the ones that he already had.

Berto has steered against mediocre opposition, and a lot of boxing fans see his fight against the little known Hernandez as being more of the same cherry picking of weak opposition that Berto has been doing. However, I still think Berto can beaten by Hernandez, as the Mexican fighter looks at least on the same level as Collazo, and we saw how Berto went life and death with Collazo in the past, If Hernandez can stay close to Berto and beat him on the inside, he could stick around late in the fight and possibly score a knockout or win a close decision.

It won’t be easy getting a decision against Berto, because he’s a name fighter the judges tend to naturally side with the more popular fighter. But I think the judges would give Hernandez a fair deal if he puts in the effort and clearly shows that he’s the better fighter on November 27th.

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