By Eric Baldwin: #2 WBC Andre Berto (31-4, 24 KOs) is thinking about moving on in another direction due to his negotiations with WBC welterweight champion Danny “Swift” Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) having reached a stall. The 33-year-old Berto has fought only once in 2015, and unless he gets back into the ring soon, he’ll miss a fight date.
The negotiating with Garcia reportedly haven’t been progressing the way that Berto had hoped they would. According to RingTV, light welterweight contender John Molina is rumored to be in the picture for Garcia. Molina is highly rated at No.3 by the World Boxing Organization at 140, but he’s not a contender in the 147lb division and you can argue that he’s about the same level as Garcia’s last opponent Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero.
“He wants to take the route that everybody continues to criticize him for,” said Berto to RingTV.com about Garcia potentially fighting John Molina.
Berto has instructed his management to look for another fight if they can’t put together the match against whoever they can fight. But if Berto does get the Garcia fight, he wants to be alerted in timer for a training camp and not something where he’s thrown into the ring to take the fight without him being ready for the contest.
Berto looked good in beating Victor Ortiz by a 4th round knockout last April at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Berto was knocked down in round 2, but he then came back to drop Ortiz twice in the 4th round to get the stoppage. It was a decent win for Berto, but it wasn’t anything special considering that Ortiz hasn’t been a major player in boxing for the last five years since his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2011. Speaking of Mayweather; Berto was beaten by him by a 12 round decision in 2015 in a one-sided fight. Berto gave it his best shot, but he didn’t have the hand speed or the talent to beat Mayweather.
Berto would give Danny Garcia a real run for his money if the two of them mixed it up. Garcia has been carefully matched for the last couple of years of his career. He had that one good fight against Lucas Matthysse several years ago, but ever since then, it’s been careful match-making for Garcia with him fight Mauricio Herrera, Rod Salka, Paulie Malignaggi, Lamont Peterson and Robert Guerrero. Garcia beat Guerrero last January to win the vacant World Boxing Council welterweight title. The real question is why was Garcia fighting Guerrero for the WBC title rather than someone more relevant like Berto, Errol Spence or Shawn Porter?