By Jason Kim: WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (24-0, 19 KOs) will be defending his title this Saturday night against Juan Urango (21-1-1, 16 KOs) in a 12-round bout at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida. Berto, 25, hopefully doesn’t have to struggle as badly as he did against Luis Collazo in his last fight which Berto took a lot of punishment en route to winning the fight by a close 12-round decision in January.
Berto looked as if he had met his match in that fight and was lucky to escape with the victory. Urango, 28, currently holds down the International Boxing Federation light welterweight title, but is also ranked at number #7 in the WBC welterweight division.
The WBC isn’t exactly loaded with talent at this time, and given the poor quality fighters that are ranked in the top 15 in the division, Urango and Collazo are probably the best of a sorry lot. Berto is going to need better opponents if he’s to make a name for himself at some point in the future, because most of his opposition up to this point have been little known fighters with little talent.
Berto has done his job in beating them, but hasn’t shined at times against some of the B-class fighters that he’s been matched with. On Saturday night, Berto will be facing a big puncher in the Colombian Urango, who is more than a handful when matched against an opponent with little movement.
However, Urango has problems against fighters that have good boxing skills and a little bit of movement. In Urango’s only loss of his seven year pro career came against Ricky Hatton in 2007. Hatton was smart enough to know that he couldn’t trade shots with Urango and hope to win, so he focuses on jabbing, moving and picking his spots to land his combinations. Urango has won his last four fights since losing to Hatton.
It worked perfectly for Hatton, who showed versatility in fighting a more technically oriented type fight than he usually does, and was able to get through Urango without too much of a struggle. Berto will likely have studied Hatton’s fight with Urango and will be looking to duplicate his efforts against Urango. Berto has the hand speed to give Urango a lot of problems.
However, with Urango’s big power and heavy pressure, he’s got the potential cause Berto a lot of headaches whether Berto decides to box or slug with him in this fight. Urango will get his licks in before he’s beaten by a likely 12 round decision.
If Berto tries for a knockout, he’s going to be taking some big risks because Urango has knockout power in each fist and can put Berto down for the count if he stands in front of Urango for too long.
In his last bout, Berto defeated Herman Ngoudjo to claim the vacant IBF light welterweight champion in January 2009.Urango dominated Ngoudjo, a good fighter, beating him by a lopsided 12 round decision. Before that fight, Ngoudjo had never been beaten like that before in his career. Urango looked much improved since his defeat to Hatton and looked much too powerful for Ngoudjo to handle.
Hopefully for Berto’s sake, the same Urango doesn’t show up this Saturday night, because if he fights in a similar manner we might be seeing Berto’s perfect record being wrecked by Urango with a defeat.
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