Notebook: Berchelt, Valdez covet title, place in pantheon of great all-Mexican battles
Wallin-Breazeale on tap, Quick hits, Show and tell
There is a rich history of memorable battles between Mexican fighters.
To name just a few: the legendary Marco Antonio Barrera-Erik Morales and Ruben Olivares-Chucho Castillo trilogies; the four-right rivalry between Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez; Francisco Vargas-Orlando Salido and Carlos Zarate-Alfonso Zamora.
Junior lightweight world titlist Miguel Berchelt and mandatory challenger Oscar Valdez, a former featherweight titlist, are both steeped in the history of the great fights produced by their countrymen. They would consider it an honor if their impending collision is remembered the same way those showdowns are.
Both say they are prepared for an all-out rumble when they meet in the highly anticipated main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card Saturday night (ESPN and ESPN+, 10 ET with preliminary bouts on ESPN+ beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET) inside the bubble of the conference center of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
“There have been a lot of great fights but Barrera-Morales is my and a lot people’s favorite war between Mexican fighters,” Berchelt said through an interpreter. “They put the bar very high for us, but we hope to not disappoint. It will be up to the fans where to rank this compared to the other great Mexican battles.”
“I see it as a war like the ones Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera gave.” — Oscar Valdez
Many believe Berchelt and Valdez, who were originally scheduled to meet Dec. 12 before it was postponed when Berchelt contracted Covid-19, will be a contender for fight of the year honors given the penchant each man has of engaging in firefights.
“I see it as a war like the ones Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera gave just for the fact that both of us have that style, not trying to back down, back out and give it our best,” said Valdez, who idolizes Morales.
To get pump himself up for the fight Valdez, the underdog to the bigger and more powerful Berchelt, watches some of the great old all-Mexican battles, preparing himself mentally for the pain he probably will have to endure.
“I visualize myself in this moment,” Valdez said. “Going over great fights has inspired me to be like this. I think this fight has all the potential to be one of those fights. I don’t promise a fight of the year, but what I do promise to everybody is I promise to leave everything I have inside the ring.
“I’m very excited. This is the opportunity of my lifetime. Ever since I was a kid I dreamed of this moment, fighting for a WBC world title. This is my chance to accomplish my dreams.”
Valdez (28-0, 22 KOs), 30, held the WBO featherweight title and defended it six times before vacating to move up in weight last year. He has been in some wild action fights, such as his bloody 2018 win over Scott Quigg and 2017 slugfest with Genesis Servania.
Valdez has since linked up with Eddy Reynoso, who also trains Canelo Alvarez, in an effort to refine his skills and become at least a little more responsible on defense. But Valdez admitted it is hard sometimes to stick to the plan when the punches start flying.
“We definitely have our game plan to be the better fighter. You have to be smart in there and not let your emotions get the best of you because that’s my biggest mistake,” Valdez said. “So, I got to control myself inside the ring and be the better and smarter fighter.”
Berchelt (38-1, 34 KOs), 29, will be making his seventh title defense but facing an opponent in two-time Olympian Valdez many believe is his most formidable.
“I feel happy, but truthfully a little anxious,” Berchelt said about the fight. “Oscar is a great fighter and has a great corner in Team Canelo. But I’m ready. I think I belong in the pound-for-pound conversation. I think I’ve proven that by facing the best competition and that’s what I’m here to prove.”
“Let the war begin.” — Miguel Berchelt
Berchelt predicts he will knock Valdez out in the ninth or 10th round but that the fight will produce the kind of unbridled action most expect en route to that result.
“Let the war begin,” Berchelt said. “I’m ready for this moment. This is the moment I’ve been dreaming of for a long time in my career. I look forward to making history alongside Oscar. I am well prepared. It’s gonna be a war. This is going to be a good fight between two Mexican warriors. I believe the winner will become the next superstar from Mexico.
“Everyone knows what happens when two Mexican warriors battle each other. I grew up watching Barrera, Morales, (Juan Manuel) Marquez. Those fights were the ones that motivated me and to know that right now my name is headlining this event alongside Oscar Valdez is very important for me. It’s a great opportunity and I’m going to take advantage of it.”
Wallin, Breazeale ready to rumble
Heavyweight contenders Dominic Breazeale and Otto Wallin are best known for losses in their biggest fights, but while many continue to ask them about those defeats the fighters say they are only focused on each other.
They square off in the 12-round co-feature of a tripleheader headlined by Adrien Broner-Jovanie Santiago on Saturday night (Showtime, 9 ET) at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, both knowing a victory will put them back in the mix for a more a bigger fight and bigger money.
Breazeale’s last fight ended in less than one round when he was eviscerated by a massive right hand from then-world titlist Deontay Wilder in May 2019.
After the resounding defeat sunk in, Breazeale, who also was stopped in the seventh round of a world title challenge against Anthony Joshua in 2016, made some changes and said he has put the loss to Wilder behind him.
“It’s true you’re only as good as your last fight, but at the same time I feel like this is my coming out party,” Breazeale said. “It feels like my pro debut. I’ve been off for a long time and had a great training camp, so I’m ready.
“After my last fight against Wilder I took a few days to digest the loss and then was back in the gym about 10 days later. I didn’t want to harp on it or let it bother me. There wasn’t really a sense of urgency, but I knew there were going to be changes and I knew they had to be done in the next couple of weeks. I focused on my eating and my training and, of course, the biggest change of all was my trainer change from Virgil Hunter to Abel Sanchez.”
Breazeale (20-2, 18 KOs), 35, of Eastvale, California, wishes he had found Sanchez years earlier.
“Switching to Abel and training up in Big Bear (California) has been huge and something I wish I would have done years ago,” he said. “Abel actually has something written on the wall that says, ‘Imagine what if.’ And I imagine ‘what if’ every night. Like I said, I wish I would have done this a year ago, but my conditioning and my confidence are at an all-time high.
“Some people might have thought I would have wanted to get back in there with a pushover, but I’ve always wanted to fight the top guys. I saw the Otto Wallin fight and the performance he gave against Tyson Fury and then Travis Kauffman. When the name was brought to my attention, I jumped all over it.”
Wallin (21-1, 14 KOs), 30, of Sweden, stopped Kauffman in the fifth round in his last fight in August but is best known for the gritty, competitive effort he gave in a decision loss to lineal champion Fury in September 2019 in which he severely cut Fury and nearly stopped him.
“Everybody wants to ask about my fight with Tyson Fury and they forget that I’ve done a lot more than that,” Wallin said. “But it was a great performance and I understand that most people hadn’t seen me fight before. It was a great fight and it was better than what most people thought. I’m kind of over that now. I want to move forward. It’s nice to move forward. It’s nice to be on Showtime fighting with Breazeale, who has a good name. So, hopefully with this fight, I beat him and move on so people can see I’m able to beat good guys.
“I think a win will hopefully help me move past Fury. But also it will put my name up there, to solidify my spot there. I don’t think this fight will get me a title shot but it will be a good (win) on the way.”
Quick hits
Weights from Las Vegas for Saturday night’s Top Rank on ESPN card: Miguel Berchelt 130 pounds, Oscar Valdez 130 (for Berchelt's junior lightweight world title); Gabriel Flores Jr. 132, Jayson Velez 132; Esquiva Falcao 162, Artur Akavov 161.5; Elvis Rodriguez 143, Luis Alberto Veron 142; Xander Zayas 146, James Martin; Sonny Conto 221.5, Waldo Cortes 255.5; Javier Martinez 161, Billy Wagner 160; Omar Rosario 140, Uriel Villanueva 141.
Weights from Uncasville, Connecticut, for Saturday night’s Showtime tripleheader: Adrien Broner 146 pounds, Jovanie Santiago 145.25; Dominic Breazeale 261.25; Otto Wallin 240.5; Robert Easter Jr. 139.75; Ryan Martin 139.5.
Golden Boy on Friday announced that junior welterweight Pablo Cesar Cano (33-7-1, 23 KOs), 31, of Mexico, and Jonathan Navarro (17-0, 9 KOs), 24, of Los Angeles, will meet in a 12-round bout in the co-feature of the Vergil Ortiz Jr.-Maurice Hooker fight on March 20 (DAZN) at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. The fight replaces the original co-feature of heavyweight Arslanbek Makhmudov against Alonzo Butler. Golden Boy said the reason for the change was because Makhmudov will instead “return in April against a very big challenge.”
Former light heavyweight world title challenger Callum Johnson (18-1, 13 KOs), 35, of England, has signed with promoter Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions. Johnson, the former British and Commonwealth champion, began his career in 2010 with Warren but most recently was with Matchroom Boxing. During that deal, Johnson challenged Artur Beterbiev for his world title in October 2018 and despite dropping Beterbiev, got knocked out in the fourth round. Johnson has fought just once since, a third-round KO of Seanie Monaghan in March 2019. “I want to be in the best possible fights domestically and on the world stage,” Johnson said. “Frank is the man to deliver those fights. It wasn’t happening for me elsewhere, and Frank has a good stable of light heavyweights so returning to him made sense.”
Salita Promotions announced that a limited number of tickets will be available for the all-female “Superwomen” pay-per-view card headlined by the undisputed junior middleweight title fight between Claressa Shields (10-0, 2 KOs) and Canada’s Marie-Eve Dicaire (17-0, 0 KOs) on March 5 (PPV and FITE, $29.95) at the Dort Financial Center in Shields’s hometown of Flint, Michigan. However, due to limitations because of the coronavirus pandemic only 194 tickets will be available.
Former junior lightweight world titlist Jorge Barrios (53-4-1, 36 KOs), 44, and former featherweight titlist Jonathan Victor Barros (42-7-1, 22 KOs), 37, both of Argentina, will meet in a 10-rounder on Saturday in Villa Carlos Paz, Argentina. Barrios didn’t fight from 2010 to 2018 because of a prison sentence. He has won his three fights since but hasn’t fought since September 2019. Barros has also been out of action since September 2019, winning that bout after three losses in a row, including to Lee Selby in a featherweight title bout and Miguel Berchelt in a junior lightweight title fight.
Quotable
“It’s important for me and (trainer) Eddy (Reynoso) because very few people have achieved becoming undisputed champions. And that’s a short-term goal for us — to win all the titles at 168 pounds.” — Canelo Alvarez, who defends his unified super middleweight belts against Avni Yildirim on Feb. 27 (DAZN), after which he will move on to a three-belt unification fight with Billy Joe Saunders in May and then, ideally, face Caleb Plant for the undisputed crown later in the year.
Show and tell
Saturday’s Miguel Berchelt-Oscar Valdez fight is expected to produce great action befitting the kind of fights Mexican boxers are known for. So, it seems appropriate that the fight will happen one day after the 21st anniversary of perhaps the greatest all-Mexican slugfest ever — the junior featherweight unification fight between legendary warriors and Hall of Famers Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales. They would meet three times in world title bouts at junior featherweight, featherweight and junior lightweight between 2000 and 2004 in one of boxing’s most epic trilogies. In the first fight, on Feb. 19, 2000, Morales won a disputed split decision in an unrelenting battle. This is an extremely rare (perhaps one of a kind) cardboard site poster that was on display at Mandalay Bay during fight week. It is signed by Barrera and one of the centerpieces of my collection.
Berchelt-Valdez photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Wallin photo: Amanda Westcott/Showtime
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Great post. Thank you for the content!