By Allan Fox: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer believes that his fighter former IBF/WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (28-2, 22 KO’s) will bounce back from his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to Robert Guerrero (31-1-1, 18 KO’s) and will be fighting for a world title in the near future.

Schaefer said to RingTV “Andre Berto has a lot to be proud of. He will be back, and he will be back, bigger, better and stronger. I am convinced that he will be fighting for a world title again in 2013.”

Now that’s a scary thought. But the sad truth is that Berto probably will be fighting for a world title for Golden Boy in 2013. After all, Golden Boy is matching 35-year-old Zab Judah against WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia next year on February 9th in a fight that few boxing fans see as a competitive match-up or even close to being a competitive fight. Golden Boy will no doubt look to put Berto in with one of the welterweight champions next year. The only question is which champion.

It’ll have to be either Devon Alexander or Paulie Malignaggi, because Floyd Mayweather, the WBC welterweight champion, isn’t going to burn up one of his valuable fights facing a guy that was just beaten badly like Berto. And WBO champion Tim Bradley won’t fight Berto, because Bradley is promoted by Top Rank, and that removes pretty much any chance of Berto fighting him because Berto fights for Golden Boy, and they rarely put fights together between their two companies.

The way that Berto looked against Guerrero it’s hard to see Berto coming back faster or better like Schaefer says. Berto looks like he’s lost his legs, because he no longer fights in the center of the ring like he did in his early 20s. He’s only 29, but he’s clearly lost something in the last couple of years because he’s now fights off the ropes like an older fighter. Can Golden Boy change that? I don’t think so because Berto has been having this problem since his fight with Victor Ortiz last year, and I think it’s going to be a permanent problem for him.

At this point I can’t even see Berto beating Malignaggi. If all Berto can do is fight with his back against the ropes like an old timer than Malignaggi would carve him up with his jab if that’s all Berto could do against him.