By Jason Kim: WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (27-0, 21 KO’s) makes no secret of the fact that he wants to take on the best fighters in the world in the likes of Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

However, because of Berto’s lackluster opposition in his three years as the World Boxing Council welterweight champion and his bad habit of fighting smaller light welterweights rather than guys from his own weight class, he’s been slow in building a fan base.

Berto also has been hurt by his change of fighting style going from a flashy puncher to a punch and grab fighter. To Berto’s credit, he’s been grabbing a lot less in his last two fights against Freddy Hernandez and Carlos Quintana.

But the fact remains his less than stellar opposition has been a major problem for Berto in picking up new fans. On April 16th, Berto will once again dip down to the light welterweight division to find an opponent, this time taking on the hard hitting southpaw Victor Ortiz (27-2-2, 22 KO’s) in a fight that could be a major stepping stone for Berto in getting bigger fights in the future.

Although Ortiz is a light welterweight and is currently struggling as a fighter, he’s popular with boxing fans because of his exciting fights with Marcos Maidana, Nate Campbell, Lamont Peterson and Vivian Harrison. Golden Boy Promotions is high on Ortiz and think he can become a huge star.

They obviously believe that Ortiz can beat Berto otherwise they wouldn’t have accepted this fight. However, the timing for this fight isn’t exactly good for Ortiz, because he’s coming off a disappointing 10 round draw with Peterson last December.

In looking at that fight, you would figure that Ortiz might not have what it takes to beat a champion like Berto. But anything is possible. Berto is badly flawed and probably shouldn’t be unbeaten because of his questionable decision win over Luis Collazo.