By Chris Williams: World Boxing Association welterweight champion Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KO’s) will be making his first fight in over a year on January 30th, against WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (25-0, 19 KO’s) in their unification bout at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Berto, 26, is hoping that a win over Mosley will lead to bigger and better things for him, and perhaps to mega stardom.

Thus far, Berto has been a disappointment to some boxing fans who have seen Berto’s fights against Miguel Angel Rodriguez, Steve Forbes, Luis Collazo and Juan Urango in the past year and not been impressed with Berto. It’s hard to disagree that Berto hasn’t looked good in the Collazo and Urgango fights. His entire style of fighting seems to have gone under a major modification since the Forbes fight.

Whereas Berto used to be a speedy combination puncher in the past before the Forbes bout. He now has evolved into a punch and grab fighter. The style has made Berto look bad in his last two fights and caused him to have problems in beating Urango and Collazo. However, it might not matter how bad Berto has started to look as of late.

If Mosley, now 38, has aged in his year off since stopping Antonio Margarito in February 2009, Berto may have a chance of beating him by a decision. But if Mosley still is pretty much the same fighter he was in the Margarito fight, then Berto doesn’t have a chance in this bout and will suffer his first defeat of his career.

Berto has the better hand speed and may have the better power as well. Those are good qualities to have if that’s all boxing came down to. But Mosley is the much superior boxer with a lot more experience at the upper level compared to Berto. Andre has been brought along carefully, matched against beatable fighters and has had things easy by going after the WBC welterweight title.

If not for the unification bout against Mosley, Berto has Floyd Mayweathern Jr. as his number #1 contender to his title. That’s a fight that Berto would love to have but probably won’t happen anytime soon unless Berto can get by Mosley. The rest of the WBC top 15 has mostly limited opposition with Collazo, Selcuk Aydin, Saul Alvarez, Ivan Kirpa, Luis Carlos Abregu, Jesus Soto Karass, Jackson Osei Bonsu, Junior Witter and Jose Luis Castillo accounting for the top 10.

If Berto can fight the way he used to fight when he was throwing a lot of combinations and taking advantage of his hand speed, I can see him beating Mosley. However, if Berto continues to use his ugly to watch punch and grab technique, then I can see Mosley winning the fight. Berto has to try and tire the older Mosley out by throwing a lot of punches and try to get him to expend energy. Berto can’t let Mosley rest by clinching him often, because that would slow the fight down enough to the point where Mosley wouldn’t have to expend as much energy.