By Dave Lahr: When I look at this Saturday’s bout between World Boxing Council welterweight champion Andre Berto (25-0, 19 KO’s) and Carlos Quintana (27-2, 21 KO’s), it’s scary to think that the 26-year-old Berto could eventually be the best welterweight in the division after Floyd Mayweather Jr., Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley hang up their gloves for good. At 26, Berto is in a good position to outlast all those fighters and still be around long after their gone.
Of course, Berto is going to have to prove that he’s got the talent to be the number #1 fighter starting this Saturday night against the 33-year-old Quintana when he fights him at the BankAtlantic Center, in Sunrise, Florida. Quintana won’t go easy unless Berto can take him out with some power shots. Quintana has beaten top fighters like Paul Williams and Joel Julio in the past. No one has ever out-boxed Quintana, who has excellent boxing skills, maybe even better than Berto. But where Quintana is vulnerable is when meeting a big puncher.
Miguel Cotto took Quintana out in a 5th round stoppage in 2006, and Williams stopped him in the 1st round in 2008. Quintana has come back from his recent loss to Williams and has picked up to impressive wins against Joshua Onyango and Jesse Feliciano. Quintana showed great boxing skills in both fights and some good power as well. Quintana is a good puncher when he loads up his shots.
Berto will need to be on guard for this, as he struggled badly against David Estrada and Luis Collazo. It seems that if Berto’s opponents are able to stick around for long, he tends to tire out and take punishment. And his new tendency to clinch after every punch thrown has made Berto a much more average fighter. It could be that Berto is trying to disguise a chin issue and wants to avoid getting hit as much.
Quintana is a southpaw and is hard to fight. Berto has been training with southpaws during camp to try and get comfortable with this stance. Although it’s possible to train with a southpaw, few move like Quintana does. Berto is going to have to cover some territory if he wants to land his shots with any kind of consistency against Quintana. He’s isn’t going to make it easy for Berto.
Berto has been matched very selectively since he won the WBC title in 2008 against Miguel Angel Rodriguez. Indeed, two of Berto’s three title defenses in the past two years have come against light welterweights. Quintana, as flawed as he is, present a tremendous leap up in competition for Berto. This may not be a big issue if Berto can rise to the occasion and fight at a higher level than what he’s shown recently, but he could also struggle and fail when facing a smart fighter like Quintana.
However, Quintana hasn’t been very active in the past couple of years, and he may be seen as vulnerable. This is probably the only he was chosen for Berto. Hopefully, Quintana is sharp and can bring out the best in Berto. It will be interesting to see if he’s for real or as bad as he looked in his fights against Collazo and Estrada.
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