Miguel Berchelt vs. Cristian Mijares possible for Feb.3 or 10

By Boxing News - 12/23/2017 - Comments

Image: Miguel Berchelt vs. Cristian Mijares possible for Feb.3 or 10

By Dan Ambrose: Negotiations for a fight between WBC super featherweight champion (Miguel ‘El Alacran’ Berchelt (32-1, 28 KOs) and #5 WBC Cristian Mijares (58-8-2, 26 KOs) are underway for a fight on February 3 or 10, according to ESPN Deportes.

Berchelt and Mijares have both started their training camps to get prepared for this fight. Mijares is a 20-year pro career, who has been fighting since 1997. Berchelt was only 6-years-old when Mijares first turned pro. That shows you how long Mijares has been around. It’s hard to believe he’s only 36. It seems like Mijares has been around forever.

Mijares is a good basic fighter, but he doesn’t match up well with Berchelt. This is going to be ugly. Berchelt has too much youth, power, size, speed and boxing skills for Mijares. If this fight had taken place in 2008 when Mijares was at the height of his career, it would have been a good one. Even then, it would still be a mismatch, because Berchelt is a naturally bigger guy than Mijares.

Berchelt will be making a voluntary defense against Mijares before facing his mandatory challenger Miguel ‘Micky’ Roman later in 2018. Berchelt was going to fight Roman straightaway, but he decided to take the fight with Miares first. It’s a nice gesture for Berchelt to give Mijares a title shot, because he didn’t have to do that. Mijares hasn’t really earned the title shot by beating a quality fighter of note recently.

Berchelt, 28, will be making his second defense of his World Boxing Council 130 lb. title he won earlier this year with an 11th round knockout win over Francisco Vargas on January 28. Berchelt successfully defended his WBC title in beating Takashi Miura last summer in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision on July 15 at The Forum in Inglewood, California.

Mijares, 36, is a step down from the last 2 guys Berchelt has fought. Mijares is a former IBF/WBA/WBC super flyweight champion. Mijares was one of the best fighters in the 115-lb. division from 2008 to 2011. Mijares ran into some problems in 2008 with 3 consecutive losses to Vic Darchinyan and Nehomar Cermeno. Mijares was beaten by Victor Terrazas by a 12 round split decision in 2013.

Mijares suffered a loss to Leo Santa Cruz in 2014 in losing a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision in a losing bid for the WBC super bantamweight title. That was the second worst defeat of Mijares’ 20-year pro career. His worst loss by far was his 9th round knockout loss to Vic Darchinyan in 2008. Mijares was totally overpowered in that fight Darchinyan.

Mijares is coming into the Berchelt fight with a 9-fight winning streak. Mijares’ recent wins have come against Jesus Arevalo, Rafael Hernandez, Tomas Rojas, Shohei Kawashima and Andres Gutierrez. Mijares had problems beating Gutierrez, but so did Abner Mares, who beat him last October by a 10th round technical decision.