By Dan Ambrose: WBC super featherweight champion Miguel “El Alacran” Berchelt (32-1, 28 KOs) won an easy 12 round unanimous decision victory over #1 WBC challenger and former WBC world champion Takashi Miura (31-4-2, 24 KOs) on Saturday night at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
Making his first defense of his World Boxing Council 130lb title, Berchelt pounded out a decision by the scores 120-109, 119-108 and 116-111. Miura, 33, had a hard landing many of his hard left hands in the fight. The southpaw Miura was constantly swinging for the fences, looking to nail the 25-year-old Berchelt with left hands, but he mostly missed badly. Part of the problem was Berchelt was out of range of the Japanese knockout artist.
When Miura would throw one of his big shots, Berchelt was far enough away to avoid the punch. Even when the shots did land, they were with less than maximum power due to Miura having to reach to land them. Miura did finally nail Berchelt with a huge left hand to the jaw in the 11th round. The punch snapped Berchelt’s head back violently. Berchelt took it well, but it clearly bothered him because he threw some fast shots back and then got on his bike to avoid getting hit again. In the 12th, Berchelt ran around the ring to make sure he wouldn’t get hit again by Miura.
Miura’s right eye was swollen up badly. After the 10th, the ringside doctor asked Miura if he wanted to continue after letting him know that he was taking too much punishment in the fight. Miura didn’t take the doctor up on his offer to quit in between rounds. Berchelt had worked Miura over in the 10th in landing some hard body shots, and hitting him hard with combinations. Miura wasn’t using his right hand nearly enough to keep Berchelt honest. By loading up mainly with just his left hand, Miura telegraphed everything he threw, making it easy for Berchelt to get out of the way of the shots.
In the 11th, Miura responded with arguably best round of the fight in catching Berchelt twice with two hard left hands to the head. The shots were able to land due to Berchelt not moving as much in this round. He wanted to stand in front of Miura, and he ended up paying for it by getting caught with two solid blows. It’s too bad Berchelt didn’t stand in front of Miura for the full 12 rounds, as it would have been a much more interesting fight to watch.
There’s only so much boxing a fighter can stand to see from a fighter before it gets boring. Berchelt’s boxing and moving was making it very boring. He was moving more than Floyd Mayweather Jr. typically does in his fights. I’m not sure what happened to the idea of being a warrior, but Berchelt didn’t seem to fancy the idea of standing and punching with Miura. We can only hope that this isn’t the way that Berchelt will continue to fight in the future. If he’s going to be that kind of champion, then he’s going to bore a lot of people.
This was supposed to have been a real slugging match. HBO Championship Boxing must have thought they were going to see a war. The fight turned out to be a dull fight with Berchelt running and Miura walking him down.
In round 12, Berchelt landed a few shots, but he mostly moved around to keep from getting hit by Miura. Berchelt was obviously told by his corner to stay on the move to milk his big lead. In other words, he chose to stall out the fight to make sure that he won the fight without any mishaps. That’s fine, but Berchelt started stalling out the fight early with his movement. It was not the brawl that the boxing public was hoping for. Berchelt was a lot more aggressive and willing to let his hands go in his previous fight against Francisco Vargas in stopping him in the 11th round earlier this year on January 28. Of course, Vargas was cut on his right eye and on the bridge of his nose. He had to fight with cuts, and that made it easier for Berchelt to get the win.
Berchelt’s win was his 11th straight victory since losing to Luis Eduado Florez by a 1st round knockout on March 15, 2014. That was 3 years ago. Florez is now a journeyman, and Berchelt is one of the 4 champions in the super featherweight division. I wouldn’t say that Berchelt is the best of the 130 lb. champions right now. I rate Vasyl Lomachenko and Gervonta Davis as better than Berchelt. Orlando Salido would be a tough fight for Berchelt if he were in shape and sharp. I don’t know how much the 36-year-old Salido has left in the tank at this point in his boxing career. I’d like to see Salido and Berchelt fight each other, but I don’t know if it would be a good fight for the fans. If Berchelt is going to run around the ring like he was doing tonight against Miura, then there’s no point in Salido fighting him. Salido would be better off facing someone that comes to fight like Lomachenko, Davis or Jezreel Corrales. Those would be good fights for Salido.
The defeat for Miura was his second loss in his last four bouts. He was beaten by Francisco Vargas by a 9th round knockout on November 21, 2015. That was exciting fight with both guys slugging it out in a toe-to-toe manner for the entire 9 rounds. Tonight’s fight between Berchelt and Miura was far less exciting. Indeed, it was boring at times due to Berchelt moving around the ring trying not to get hit. That made it boring at times. Berchelt is probably not going to be an exciting champion as the guy that he replaced in Francisco Vargas. There’s a big difference between those two guys, as well as with Miura. Berchelt is more of a boxer first and a puncher second. He tries not to get hit, and he does it by moving around.
It’s going to take a fighter with a good set of wheels to chase Berchelt down and finally beat him. He’s not going to make it easy on his opposition by standing and fighting them like some of the exciting super featherweight champions in the past. Berchelt is cut from a different set of cloth.
