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| Photo: berchelt-lequipe-fr.com |
By Peter Silkov
Miguel Berchelt (32-1, 28koes) last night made a successful first defence of his WBC world super-featherweight title, with an unanimous points win over former champion Takashi Miura (31-4-2, 24koes) at The ‘Fabulous’ Forum, Inglewood, California. What was expected to be one of the ‘fights of the year’ turned out to be an exhibition in boxing speed and skills. Putting aside the all-action style that won him this title against Francisco Vargas in January, Berchelt instead chose to use his boxing skills against the rugged Miura, befuddling the challenger with movement, a persistent jab, and some sharp combinations. To his credit, Miura never stopped trying to press the fight, but time after time when he tried to land some telling punches, the elusive champion had already moved away. Miura, on the other hand, found it hard to avoid most of the champions punches, but once again showed his durability and heart, by taking it all with the stoicism of the hardened ring warrior. Despite the significant punishment that he had to endure in the course of the fight, Miura never looked on the verge of being stopped, despite being knocked down briefly in the first round.
Miguel Berchelt (32-1, 28koes) last night made a successful first defence of his WBC world super-featherweight title, with an unanimous points win over former champion Takashi Miura (31-4-2, 24koes) at The ‘Fabulous’ Forum, Inglewood, California. What was expected to be one of the ‘fights of the year’ turned out to be an exhibition in boxing speed and skills. Putting aside the all-action style that won him this title against Francisco Vargas in January, Berchelt instead chose to use his boxing skills against the rugged Miura, befuddling the challenger with movement, a persistent jab, and some sharp combinations. To his credit, Miura never stopped trying to press the fight, but time after time when he tried to land some telling punches, the elusive champion had already moved away. Miura, on the other hand, found it hard to avoid most of the champions punches, but once again showed his durability and heart, by taking it all with the stoicism of the hardened ring warrior. Despite the significant punishment that he had to endure in the course of the fight, Miura never looked on the verge of being stopped, despite being knocked down briefly in the first round.
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| Photo: berchelt-miura-rds-ca.com |
It
was clear from the beginning that this was going to be a tough night
for the challenger. Although he recovered quickly from the first
round knockdown, which was caused by a one-two combination to the
right side of the challenger’s head, the difference in speed,
freshness and boxing technique, had become evident by the end of the
opening stanza. Berchelt showed maturity by not going after Miura
following the knockdown, but rather instead sticking to a game plan
of out-boxing the challenger. This tactic made what could have been
a hard fight for Berchelt, almost routine at times. Miura was
reduced to looking for a single shot to turn the tide as the rounds
progressed, and when he did connect the force of his punches showed
the wisdom behind the champion’s game plan. While the fight wasn’t
the blood and bombs thriller people had expected, it remained an
interesting spectacle. In the final three rounds Miura upped his
attacks to the point of desperation and started landing more
frequently with his hammer of a left hand. The visible effects of
these shots on the champion, brief though they were, showed that
Berchelt was indeed wise not to go into a toe-to-toe
slugfest with his challenger.
Indeed
the last round was the closest that the fight came to being a
slugfest, as Berchelt decided to stand his ground, and brawl with
Miura. This led to some exciting final exchanges, but the champion
still landed more punches than he took, and ended the fight a clear
and impressive winner. The final scores of the judges were 120-109,
119-108 and 116-111. While this victory did not match the excitement
of his title winning triumph over Francisco Vargas, it was a very
mature and impressive boxing display from Berchelt. ‘The Scorpion’
will now be looking to big fights with some of the other ‘world
champions’ at super-featherweight.
One
possible future opponent for Berchelt is the WBA world
super-featherweight titleholder, Jazreel Corrales (22-1, 8koes). who
retained his title in an entertaining support fight to Berchelt’s
defence. Corrales retained his title with a tight 10-round
technical decision over Robinson Castellanos (22-12, 14koes) after
the fight had been called off, due to a severe cut underneath the
challenger’s right eye, after an accidental head butt.
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| Photo: boxeodecolombia.com |
The
fight itself was a gripping mixture of knockdowns, butts, cuts, and
some lively exchanges. The champion, Corrales, a Panamanian having
his first fight in America, showed some flashy boxing skills from his
southpaw stance, and was certainly the superior boxer of the two,
with significantly faster reflexes. The Mexican challenger was the
puncher of the two and troubled the champion with his busy two-handed
attacks. The fight followed the pattern of Corrales using his boxing
skills to pot shot and stay elusive, while Castellanos looked to
constantly stalk the champion and land his powerful combinations.
Castellanos biggest mistake in this fight was that he didn’t stay
busy enough and too often let Corrales dictate the pace with his
boxing.
The
fight looked like it was going the challengers way in the 4th
round when he dropped Corrales twice, but
the champion, who has been dropped in previous fights, came back well
from this round and in the 7th
stanza looked to have regained control of the fight when he dropped
Castellanos.
The
8th
and 9th
rounds were close, but Corrales seemed to be winning them as
displayed some athletic boxing skills to outland the challenger, who
seemed to be waiting on his punches too much. In the 10th
round, an accidental clash of heads significantly increased an
already existing cut underneath the challengers right eye, and the
ringside doctor called a halt to the fight. It was a disappointing
end to what had been the fight of the night. Corrales retained his
WBA world title with scores of 94-94, 94-93, and 96-92.
This
narrow points defeat ended Robinson Castellanos’ ‘Rockylike’
rise to world title challenger after he went 10-10 in the first 20
fights of his professional career. This is one fighter who deserves
another title shot.
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| Photo: Ringtv.com |
On
the bill’s undercard, at light-heavyweight, Joe Smith Jr.
(23-2, 19koes) saw his world title hopes dealt a severe blow as he
was comprehensively out-boxed
and out-punched
for most of his 10 round fight with Sullivan Barrera (20-1, 14koes).
Smith Jr’s
only success came at the end of the first round when he landed one of
his right hand bombs and dropped Barrera. However, Barrera recovered
from the knockdown and took control of the fight from the second
round onwards. Smith Jr. landed at times, but for the most part, was
out-boxed,
and out-manoeuvred
by Barrera, who dished out some heavy punishment as the fight went
on. It has been confirmed that Smith Jr. suffered a broken jaw early on in the fight. Hopefully he will return after this setback.
The
scores were 97-92 (twice) and 96-93. Barrera should now be in line
for a world title shot, but knowing the quirkiness of boxing
politics, it would not be surprising to see Smith Jr.
getting a title shot instead.
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