By Allan Fox: Virgil Hunter, the trainer for former IBF/WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (28-3, 22 KO’s), would like to see Berto get back in the ring and face Jesus Soto Karass (28-8-3, 18 KO’s) in Berto’s next fight rather than moving on to take a lesser opponent.
Berto was stopped in the 12th round by Soto Karass last month on July 27th at the AT&T Center, in San Antonio, Texas, USA. Hunter attributes a part of that loss to Berto injuring his right arm early in the fight.
Berto said after the bout that he had pulled his right arm out of the shoulder socket early in the fight, and had problems using it. The was pretty close at the time of the stoppage with one judge scoring it 105-103 for Berto, another 105-103 for Soto Karass and the third scoring it 104-104.
Hunter told RingTV “With a fight that close, I think that it’s a fight the public would want to see again. There’s no sense of him going to another situation where he needs a confidence booster. My personal feelings is that they should fight again.”
There’s a couple of problems with Berto and Soto Karass fighting again. The biggest problem is that Showtime might not be interested in televising the two fighters going at it again.
Soto Karass proved that he was the better fighter by knocking Berto out, and if Showtime were to televise a rematch between them, it might not attract a lot of viewers because it’s going to be a rerun type of fight.
The other problem that Hunter would have is that Berto’s promoter probably won’t want to put Berto back in with Soto Karass, and risk having Berto get beaten yet again. It doesn’t matter that the fight was close, and that Berto suffered an injury. The fact is Berto lost, and he’s been having injury problems lately.
Berto tore his left bicep in 2012 while getting ready for a rematch against Victor Ortiz. In 2010, Berto tore his right bicep in his fight against Carlos Quintana. As you can see, Berto has been suffering injuries quite frequently, and there’s no telling whether he can get through a full fight against Soto Karass without suffering another injury, and then having that as a partial excuse for the loss.
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