By Chris Williams: I’ve been waiting for two long years for WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (26-0, 20 KO’s) to finally step it up and fight someone with a pulse, but it looks like I’m going to have to keep waiting because he’s matched against Freddie Hernandez (29-1, 20 KO’s) on the undercard of the Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Michael Katsidis card on November 27th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. According to news from Dan Rafael, HBO is paying $1.25 million for the Berto-Hernandez fight, which seems incredible given that this isn’t even remotely an appealing fight. I personally can’t stand to watch Berto fight. It’s so boring, and his opponents are always so weak. It’s not even interesting.

Hernandez, 31, is basically a total unknown to all but the most hardcore of boxing fans. We’re talking really hardcore, because he’s someone that who still hasn’t cut his teeth on any top level opposition and has fought mostly B level fighters. You can make the exact same argument about Berto, but he’s had the luxury of having all of his fights shown on HBO for the past two or three years. They obviously are counting on Berto being the future of the welterweight division given that he’s still only 27.

Berto may be the future of the division or at least of the parts of it, but that doesn’t mean that he’s someone that has a large following or is well liked by boxing fans. Despite HBO shoving him down boxing fans’ throats by showing his fights all the time, Berto has failed to build a large fan base of his mediocre opposition and his dull style of fighting which involves a lot of punching and immediately grabbing his opponents.

Berto’s fight with Hernandez won’t be the main event on November 27th. It’s going to be the co-main event, and it probably should be shoved even further down the chain behind the bout between Celestino Caballero vs. Jason Litzau. That fight is likely going to be much more exciting than Berto-Hernandez. Berto could really help himself if he was to somehow fight guys like Shane Mosley, Saul Alvarez or Mike Jones. It’s time that Berto start fighting guys like that.

If Berto could step up the level of his opposition a couple of levels, he could very well be a huge star if he could handle those kinds of fighters. I don’t know that he can, but it would at least win the respect of boxing fans. As long as Berto didn’t huge his opponents after every punch, like he’s been doing, he’d still win fans even if he gets beaten up in those fights.