Witherspoon-Arreola, Berto-Rodriguez Battle Tomorrow Night

witherspoon3535.jpgBy Jason Kim: HBO’s Boxing After Dark will show two of the best fights this year on Saturday evening with undefeated heavyweight prospects Chris Arreola (23-0, 21 KOs) and Chazz Witherspoon (23-0, 15 KOs) go head to head in an important heavyweight bout for the two young prospects. In the main event, the number #1 and #2 top challengers for the WBC welterweight title Andre Berto (21-0, 18 KOs) and Miguel Angel Rodriguez (29-2, 23 KOs) fight for the now vacant title.

Witherspoon, 26, will be testing his boxing ability against the all out slugging style of Arreola, in a fight of complete opposites. Witherspoon, 6’4″ 226 lbs, is a fighter in the mold of Wladimir Klitschko, whom he sometimes spars with. Witherspoon has shown a tremendous amount of progress in his short four-year boxing career, especially recently with his training with Klitschko. His style of fighting is very technical, consisting of a lot of jabs, left hooks, uppercuts and straight right hands. He’s a rare type of fighter that can do everything well, whether that be fighting at a distance or on the inside. In fact, Witherspoon is even more dangerous on the inside, where he often nails his opponents with big uppercuts, although if you were to put the question to him I’m fairly certain that he’d say that he prefers fighting on the outside where he can utilize his long jab and left hook.

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Arreola vs. Witherspoon and Berto vs. Rodriquez This Saturday

arreola44632.jpgBy Jason Kim: In what will likely be an exciting card with two huge unbeaten heavyweight prospects Chazz Witherspoon (23-0, 15 KOs) and the powerful Chris Arreola (23-0, 21 KOs) going at each other on the undercard, and top welterweight contenders Andre Berto (21-0, 18 KOs) and little known Miguel Angel Rodriguez (29-2, 23 KOs) facing off in the main event for the vacant WBC welterweight title.

The fight between the two heavyweights Arreola and Witherspoon may turn out to be the most exciting fight of the fight, for it matches two top heavyweights against each other, each with unbeaten records. Arreola, 27, ranked #10 in the WBO and IBF, is known for his knockout power and his heavy pressure. At 6’4″ 245 lbs, Arreola has the size to match up with the equally big 6’4″ 230 lbs Witherspoon. Arreola, however, is known more for his brawling style of fighting, which has allowed him to knockout 21 of his 23 opponents, rather than his boxing ability. Indeed, Arreola rarely ever attempts to box, use his jab or try and finesse his opponents in the ring. Instead, he makes no secret about what he’s going to try and do, namely take his opponents’ head off with every punch.

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Berto vs. Rodriguez For WBC Welterweight Title On June 21st

berto446464.jpgBy Scott Gilfoid: Undefeated welterweight contender Andre Berto (21-0, 18 KOs) will meet up with the virtually unknown Miguel Angel Rodriguez (29-2, 23 KOs) for the vacant WBC welterweight title on June 21st, at the FedEx Forum, in Memphis, Tennessee. The title suddenly opened up last week with the unexpected retirement of Floyd Mayweather Jr. Berto, the number #1 ranked contender in the WBC welterweight division, had been hoping to land a fight with Mayweather to challenge for the title. However, with the retirement of Mayweather, this opened up the title for Berto and Rodriguez, the number #2 ranked contender in the WBC, to meet face to face to determine the new WBC welterweight champion.

Berto, 24, an unsuccessful representative for Haiti at the 2004 Olympics, has been impressive for the most part since turning professional, beating a slew of mostly C-level fighters. He has a lot of power, speed and good boxing skills. His chin, however, appears to be his weak point, as he’s been stunned, and even knocked down, in fights against B grade fighters. He had a tough time beating both Cosme Rivera and David Estrada, two of the best wins on his record, and took a lot of punishment from each of them.

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Berto vs. Rodriguez for WBC Belt, Mayweather To Vacate Title

berto353553351.jpgBy Eric Thomas: According to Ledger.com, undefeated WBC welterweight #1 challenger Andre Berto (21-0, 18 KOs) will be fighting Miguel Angel Rodriguez for the WBC welterweight title on June 21st at the FedEx Forum, in Memphis, Tennessee. The bout will be for champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s WBC title, which he’s failed to defend since defeating Ricky Hatton by a 10th round TKO in December 2007. Apparently, due to Mayweather failing to defend his WBC title within the time limits set forth by the WBC, his title will be vacated, allowing Berto, the number one challenger in the division, to take on Rodriguez, ranked number two in the WBC.

Berto, 24, a representative for Haiti at the 2004 Olympics, has mostly looked good while building up an impressive unbeaten streak with a high percentage of knockouts on his record. Up until his fight with journeyman Cosme Rivera in July 2007, Berto had looked close to invincible, knocking out almost all of his opponents and badly outclassing those that he couldn’t knockout. However, Rivera changed all that by dropping Berto in the 6th round of their bout with a right hand, and then battering him around the ring for the remainder of the round, including some of the 7th round.

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Berto Crushes Trabant

By Dan Ambrose: In a fight that some people thought might be competitive going into the bout, undefeated knockout artist welterweight contender Andre Berto (21-0, 18 KOs) destroyed Michel Trabant (43-3-1, 19 KOs) in six brutal rounds on Saturday night at the Pechanga Resort & Casino, in Temecula, California. Trabant, 29, a fighter with an impressive record built on fighting mostly weaker competition in Germany, gave up after the sixth round due to the tremendous punishment that he had sustained during the course of the fight.

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Berto vs. Estrada

berto35355335.jpgWelterweight prospect Andre Berto (19-0, 16 KOs) will meet up with experienced fighter David Estrada (21-3, 12 KOs) for the NABF welterweight title on Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Considered one of the top prospects in the welterweight division, Berto has breezed through his first 19 fights in an effortless fashion. showing brilliant handspeed and extraordinary power as he’s knocked out sixteen of his foes during that time.

Still only 24, and ranked # 5 in the WBC welterweight listings, Berto is coming off a 10-round unanimous decision effort against Cosme Rivera in July 2007, a bout in which Berto was knocked down in the 6th round of the fight. It appeared, however, that Berto had been off balance when hit by Rivera, but it was enough to cause doubt in Berto’s abilities by many in the boxing community, who feel that his chin and defense may have potential problems.

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