By Jeff Aranow: In a fight of the year candidate, WBC super featherweight Miguel Berchelt (35-1, 31 KOs) defeated Miguel ‘Mickey’ Roman (60-13, 47 KOs) in stopping him in the 9th round in a competitive fight on Saturday night at the Don Haskins Convention Center in El Paso, Texas.
(Photo Credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank)
In the 9th, Roman hurt Berchelt with some big shots early in the round. Berchelt then came back strong and hurt Roman with some left-right to the head that sent him down to the canvas. Roman showed a great deal of heart in getting back to his feet. Berchelt went right after him in landing a series of hard punches to the head of Mickey Roman. The referee then stepped in and halted the fight.
Both guys were hurt multiple times in the fight. Every time that it looked like Berchelt had Roman ready to be knocked out, he would come back to land a big shot that would keep him competitive. Berchelt had too much youth, reach and recovery power for Roman. That was the difference in the fight. Berchelt controlled the fight from range ad
The win for Berchelt was his fourth successful title defense since winning the World Boxing Council 130 lb title in January 2017 in stopping Francisco Vargas in the 11th round.
For Roman, this was his third unsuccessful attempt at winning a world title since he turned pro 15 years ago. Roman might have won world title if he had been fighting the other super featherweight champions tonight, but he didn’t have the answer for Berchelt’s talent.
Roman showed incredible durability to take the shots that he was getting hit from Berchelt. Roman’s best round was the fifth. He hurt Berchelt with a hard right hand that stunned him. Roman came back strong at the end of the round to make it close.
In the 6th, Berchelt had Roman close to being knocked out after he dropped him twice. Berchelt tried to close the show, but Roman held on to make it out of the round.
Roman fought carefully in the 7th, staying on the outside and not putting the pressure on Berchelt. This enabled Roman to recover from the previous round, as Berchelt wasn’t pressuring hi and looking to score a stoppage. Berchelt probably could have finished Roman if he wanted to, but he fought carefully and let him hang around.
In the 8th and 9th, Roman looked like a punching bag in taking huge shots from Berchelt in both rounds.
All in all, this was a great fight. It would be nice if Top Rank Boxing put Roman and Berchelt together for a rematch if possible. Perhaps for the right money, Roman might be willing to do this again unless he has other options for a world title shot.
