By Dan Ambrose: WBC super featherweight champion Miguel Berchelt (24-1, 30 KO) weighed in at 129.6 lbs for his title defense against Miguel “Mickey” Roman (60-12, 47 KOs) on Saturday night in this Top Rank Boxing promoted card at the Don Haskins Convention Center, El Paso. Roman, 32, weighed in at 129.6 lbs.
Berchelt will be defending his WBC 130 lb title this Saturday night on ESPN+ at 9:30 p.m ET.
This will be the fourth defense for Berchelt of his World Boxing Council title he won last year in January 2017 in defeating Francisco Vargas by an 11th round knockout. Berchelt has looked invincible since then, successfully defending his WBC 130 lb title against Takashi Miura, Maxwell Awuku and Jonathan Victor Barros.
Roman, 32, was given up on by a lot of boxing fans after numerous losses during his career. However, he’s turned his career around in winning 22 out of his last 23 fights since 20. He’s turned his career around with wins over Orlando Salido and Aristides Perez. Granted, Roman beat the past his prime Salido and not the still in his prime version. Roman was stopped in the 12th round by the hard-hitting Takashi Miura in January 2017.
Roman was competitive against Miura, but he was eventually worn down and stopped. Berchelt doesn’t possess the same kind of punching power that Miura had going for him during his career. What Berchelt does have going for him is the ability to place his punches in perfect spots to hurt his opponents.
Roman has tried and failed to win world titles on two occasions during his 15-year pro career in defeats at the hands of Jonathan Victor Barros and Antonio DeMarco. This Saturday’s title shot for Roman figures to be by far the toughest of his career. Roman, 32, seems to have gotten stronger and more muscular in the last two years. Roman’s power and his ruggedness makes him a very tough out for Berchelt if he can’t keep out of the way of his shots. The normally steel-chinned Salido couldn’t deal with the power and the heavy pressure that Roman put on him last December. Roman dropped Salido three times in the fight in knocking him down in rounds four, eight and nine before the contest was stopped in the 9th. It was an outstanding fight by Roman in never letting Salido get his game in gear the way he normally does. Since that fight, Roman has continued looking great in stopping Aristides Perez and Michel Marcano in fast knockouts.
Berchelt (34-1, 30 KOs) is the 26-year-old champion looking to make the fourth defense of his world title. Roman (60-12, 47 KOs) is the 32-year-old veteran from Juarez, Mexico, making his third attempt at a world title.
“I trained very hard. I want to show that I’m the best 130-pounder in the world, and I will show it on Saturday night,” Berchelt said. “I’m going for the knockout and I know that Mickey will be as well, so it’s going to be a great fight,” Berchelt said.
It’s best that Berchelt go for a knockout and not leave Roman in there for too long. Roman hits too hard, and he could land something big in the later rounds that will change the entire complexion of the fight. Berchelt has the defensive ability and the boxing skills to dominate the fight on the outside if he wants to. I don’t know if that’s quite Berchelt’s style though. He likes to mix it up with his opponents to go after knockouts while entertaining the boxing fans at the same time. Berchelt is from Mexico, and the fans there want there fighters to go to war. Berchelt is an entertainer and he’s not going to let the fans down on Saturday night.
“The two Miguels are going to go at it. Hammering time,” Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said about Berchelt and Roman. “You’re really in for a treat. These two warriors are really what boxing is all about. Once the bell rings, as long as the fight goes, your eyeballs are going to be riveted on the ring.”
This is going to be a real show if the two warriors can stretch out into the second half of the bout. Berchelt, 28, is a little younger than the 32-year-old Roman. It’s going to be up to Roman to try and find a way to overcome the youth advantage of Berchelt. Roman can’t afford to get frustrated when things don’t go his way in the first six rounds of the fight. Roman needs to realize that he’s fighting a much better opponent than the last 23 guys that he’s faced since 2012. Berchelt is at a higher level, and a much better fighter than anyone he’s fought in a long time. Berchelt might be the best fighter that Roman will have ever fought. It’s good that Roman is peaking in his career right now. If he took this fight seven years ago, it would have been tough on him.
Berchelt is on his way to stardom in the the super featherweight division. It’s too bad that Vasyl Lomachenko didn’t stick around long enough to face him before moving up to lightweight. There’s still some interesting fights out there for Berchelt against WBA Super World champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, Alberto Machado, Masayuki Ito and Tevin Farmer. Those are great fights for Berchelt if he can get them. Unfortunately for Berchelt, he could scare them and their promoters away if he does too good of a job beating ‘Mickey’ Roman on Saturday night. The way that Berchelt took care of Francisco Vargas, Takashi Miura, Jonathan Victor Barros and Maxwell Awuku, it looks like he’s getting better. Sooner or later, the top fighters will want to come looking in Berchelt’s direction.
It’s important for Berchelt to fight as frequently as possible on ESPN and ESPN+ to be seen by the boxing public so that he can attract a huge following like Saul Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin both did to become stars. Their promoters used a simple approach to creating stars out of them. They simply had them both fighting all the time against the best possible opponents they could find. The fans were so impressed they began following them in droves. Berchelt isn’t fighting enough right now to transform himself into a star. Fighting just twice a year, Berchelt isn’t being seen enough. If he could four to five times a year, he would pick up a lot more fans as long he keeps winning.
Other weights:
Miguel Berchelt 126.5 lbs vs. Jose Estrella 126.5 lbs
