By Dan Ambrose: WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (27-0, 21 KO’s) will be making his sixth defense of his World Boxing Council welterweight title on April 16th against light welterweight contender Victor Ortiz (28-2-2, 22 KO’s) at a still unknown venue. Berto, 27, will be fighting his 3rd light welterweight in Ortiz and that’s something that has caused more than a few boxing fans to criticize Berto.

Even Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has gotten into the act, pointing out that Berto is fighting a light welterweight that fought to a draw in his last fight. Arum thinks that Berto should be facing #4 ranked WBC contender Mike Jones instead of battling yet another light welterweight.

Berto defends his fight against Ortiz, saying in an article at the ringtv.com “Victor Ortiz is almost the same size as me or bigger.” That may be true, but Berto should still be fighting guys from his own division rather than cherry picking fighters from a division below his to fight time after time. It would be understandable that Berto would be facing Ortiz is this was a first time thing. But this is the 3rd time Berto has picked out a guy from the light welterweight division and it’s getting tiresome already.

Berto has good options at welterweight if he were only to fight the guys. Besides Jones, there’s Selcuk Aydin, Shawn Porter, Jesus Soto-Karass, Brad Solomon, and Sebatian Lujan. Those would be good fights if Berto would take on one of these guys instead of returning to the light welterweight pool time after time to find his opponents. He should just move down in weight and have done with the welterweight division.