Unheralded Nakathila pummels Berchelt in lopsided sixth-round knockout
Former junior lightweight titlist moves up in weight and suffers second stoppage loss in a row
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It now seems apparent that Oscar Valdez’s brutal beat down and massive 10th-round knockout of Miguel Berchelt 13 months ago ruined Berchelt as a top fighter and that Jeremiah Nakathila used their fight on Saturday night to pick at the bones.
Nakathila knocked Berchelt down in the third round, bloodied him and battered him relentlessly en route to a one-sided sixth-round knockout in the lightweight main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card at Resorts World Las Vegas, which hosted its first sports event since opening in June.
Berchelt was the favorite when he met underdog Valdez in defense of his WBC junior lightweight title, but Valdez dominated and scored a gargantuan one-punch knockout of the year that left Berchelt face-first on the canvas separated from his senses.
Making his ring return and moving up to lightweight, Berchelt (38-3, 34 KOs), 30, of Mexico, was also favored to beat the unheralded Nakathila, who was also moving up to 135 pounds for his second bout since coming to the United States in June and getting knocked down and dominated in a shutout decision loss to Shakur Stevenson for the WBO interim junior lightweight belt.
But Nakathila (23-2, 19 KOs), 32, of Namibia, looked like a different fighter against Berchelt, whom he manhandled. From the opening bell it was clear this was not the Berchelt who had beaten Francisco Vargas to win the 130-pound crown in 2017 and went on to make six successful defenses, including against Vargas in rematch, Takashi Miura, Miguel Roman and Jason Sosa.
This Berchelt, who was in his first fight with Jorge Capetillo as his trainer, was even slower than usual, had wobbly legs and showed poor reactions when he got clipped with a clean shot.
“From the first round, my corner told me to take my time,” Nakathila said. “I know what I have. I knew it would be difficult for him to reach the 10th round. It wasn’t so easy, but I made it look easy. He didn’t really bother me, the way he swung. I just got back to my game plan, and I capitalized.”
Midway through the third round Nakathila dropped Berchelt to his rear end with nothing more than a jab. Every time the aggressive Nakathila landed something even decent, Berchelt seemed shaken up.
Berchelt’s legs were in terrible shape in the fifth round, but he landed his best shots of the fight when he connected with a combination that rocked Nakathila in the final minute before Nakathila came back to finish the round landing a solid right hand.
Nakathila continued to pound Berchelt with right hands in the sixth round, one of which landed cleanly and ejected his mouthpiece and left him with a bloody nose.
When the round ended, referee Russell Mora looked Berchelt over on his stool and waved off the fight. Nakathila was ahead 60-53 on all three scorecards at the time of the stoppage.
“Luckily, (he couldn’t continue). I was going to knock him out or put him to sleep in a bad way,” Nakathila said. “Luckily, he saw it coming and decided he couldn’t come back.”
According to CompuBox statistics, Nakathila landed 125 of 503 punches (25 percent) and Berchelt landed 80 of 287 (28 percent). Nakathila also outlanded Berchelt in every round except for the fifth round.
“I’m a little bit surprised,” Berchelt said of the stoppage. “I thought I was in a condition to continue, but the referee decided to stop the fight. He’s the ultimate authority. I have to respect that, but I wanted to continue.
“I’m going to get up. I’m going to rise from this. The great champions are not the ones who fall. The great champions are those who rise, and I will go home, spend time with my family, visit with them, get some rest, and I am going to come back stronger than ever.”
In the all-Mexican featherweight co-feature, Eduardo Baez (21-2-2, 7 KOs) won a majority decision over 27-year-old Jose Enrique Vivas (21-2, 11 KOs). The scores were 98-92, 96-94 and 95-95.
In one of the preliminary bouts, welterweight Tiger Johnson (3-0, 2 KOs), 23, a 2020 U.S. Olympian from Cleveland, stopped Sebastian Gabriel Chaves (5-4, 2 KOs), 27, a southpaw from Argentina, in the fourth round. Johnson delivered a one-sided beating in their scheduled six-rounder. He dropped Chaves with a straight right hand early in the fourth and ended it later in the round with a left hook that prompted referee Kenny Bayless to wave it off at 1 minute, 42 seconds.
Photos: Mikey Williams/Top Rank
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