By Jason Kim: Although the April16th proposed bout between WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto and light welterweight Victor Ortiz is still only being talked about, it’s a real possibility that this fight will he happening on HBO in April. This would be one of those HBO in house fights, because both Ortiz and Berto are HBO fighters and this would be one way for HBO to put on a somewhat decent fight.

The problem is that Berto has been fighting light welterweights half of the time since he captured the WBC welterweight title in 2008. Berto might as well scrap the WBC title and move down to light welterweight where he can compete with the likes of Amir Khan, Timothy Bradley, Zab Judah, Lucas Matthysse, Marcos Maidana and Ortiz. Berto is going to find the welterweight division pretty much empty soon enough anyway, because Manny Pacquiao won’t be fighting much longer and neither will Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Once those fighters are gone, there is absolutely no one at welterweight worth fighting. Berto would be crazy to stay at that weight. Saul Alvarez has already outgrown the welterweight division and now holds a newly created WBC Silver title at junior middleweight. Mike Jones will probably never be a star and is already struggling with fringe contenders at welterweight. Since Berto is already fighting light welterweights, he might as well just forget about the welterweight division altogether and campaign as a light welterweight.

At least it won’t attract attention every time Berto fights one of the smaller fighters like it does now. Can you imagine IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko defending his titles against cruiserweights half of the time. He would receive a huge amount of criticism if he were to do this.

As for the Berto vs. Ortiz fight, I’m leaning in the direction of Berto winning this fight, but only because he’s the bigger guy compared to Ortiz.