By Dan Ambrose: This Friday night on Spike TV, former IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter (24-1-1, 15 KOs) will be fighting Roberto Garcia (36-3, 23 KOs) in scheduled 10 round fight in what will likely be the best fight on the card at the Citizens Business Bank Arena, in Ontario, California.
Also on the card is former IBF/WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (29-3, 22 KOs) fighting former world title challenger Josesito Lopez (33-6, 19 KOs) in a 10 round bout. Rounding out the card is heavyweight former world title challenge Chris Arreola (35-4, 31 KOs) facing little known heavyweight Curtis Harper (12-3, 8 KOs) in a 10 round bout.
The Berto-Lopez fight should be a mismatch depending on how shot Berto is. He looked good in his last fight against Steve Upsher Chambers last year in September in beating him by a 10 round unanimous decision, but that was a case of Berto being spoon fed an easy mark.
The last time Berto faced a decent opponent, he was beaten by Jesus Soto Karass by a 12th round knockout in July of 2013. Berto tore up his shoulder early in that fight, and was forced to fight with one arm until he was stopped in the 12th.
Lopez, 30, has never been more than a B-level fighter who was blown out by the likes of Marcos Maidana and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Lopez’s biggest win of his career was against Victor Ortiz in 2012 in stopping him in the 9th round after Ortiz quit on his stool due to him having suffered a broken jaw. But Lopez has really gone downhill since his back to back defeats to Canelo and Maidana.
Lopez has looked really poor in his last three fights against Rafael Cobos, Aaron Martinez and Mike Arnatoutis. If Lopez is able to pull an upset win over Berto on Friday night then this will be a real sign that it’s over for Berto, because he should be able to beat Lopez without any problems unless he’s totally shot.
Lopez hasn’t faced a quality opponent since the Maidana fight in June of 2013, and he was stopped in the 6th round in that fight. You can’t expect Lopez to get in the ring with Berto and beat him unless Berto is completely gone. Lopez was a much better fighter when he was boiling down to light welterweight to face the smaller guys at that weight.
When he was fighting in the 140 pound division, Lopez was able to rehydrate after making weight and use his size advantage to beat a lot of guys in that weight class. But in fighting at welterweight, Lopez has no advantages over the good fighters. He’s simply not fast and strong enough to compete against the better fighters.
Arreola, 34, hasn’t fought since getting stopped in the 6th round by Bermane Stiverne last year in May. Arreola has been active ever since then, which obviously isn’t the smartest move when you’re as old as Arreola.
This was Arreola’s second loss to Stiverne, and he probably should have thought twice before taking that fight. His first loss to Stiverne should have given Arreola a big enough hint that he doesn’t belong in the same ring with him. It looks like Arreola will be going back to fighting weak opposition for a long period of time before he eventually starts facing quality opposition again. After Arreola’s loss to Tomasz Adamek in 2010, Arreola took seven fights against soft jobs from 2010 to 2012 before he was beaten badly by Stiverne in 2013.
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