By Ian S Palmer
WBC Super Featherweight Champion Miguel Berchelt of Mexico will be defending his belt against Jonathan Victor Barros of Argentina in Merida, Mexico this Saturday, June 23rd. The 12-round bout can be seen live in the USA on ESPN+. In addition, UK fans can catch the action on BoxNation. Berchelt’s last contest took place in February when he beat Maxwell Awuku by a third-round stoppage. Barros’ last outing was in July when he dropped a unanimous decision to IBF Featherweight Champion Lee Selby.
Berchelt is 26 years old and has an excellent record of 33-1 with 29 Kos. He turned pro back in 2010 and has 125 rounds under his belt since then. He stands 5-feet-7-inches tall with a reach of 71 inches. Berchelt’s record shows that he has quite a bit of power and his current knockout ratio is a very impressive 85 per cent. His lone loss was a first-round TKO at the hands of Luis Florez in 2014. Berchelt’s best wins have been against Takashi Miura, Francisco Vargas, George Jupp, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Escalante, Carlos Reyes and Cristobal Cruz.
Berchelt is a fan-friendly boxer with an exciting style who gave fans a couple of classics against very tough customers in Vargas and Miura. He’s defending his title for the third time here as a way to keep himself busy, but can’t afford to take Barros too lightly since he’s a former WBA World Featherweight Champion and has won several regional and minor titles as a pro. The 34-year-old veteran Barros will climb into the ring with a record of 41-5-1 with 22 Kos. He’s boxed 287 rounds since turning pro in 2004 so has the edge in experience.
Barros is 5-feet-6-inches tall, but his reach is unlisted. But he’s an inch shorter than Berchelt. He’s not known as a KO artist as his knockout ratio currently stands at 47 per cent. His five losses have been to Selby as well as Yuriorkis Gamboa in a world title fight by unanimous decision in 2010. He also dropped unanimous decisions to Celestino Caballero in 2011 and Juan Carlos Salgado in 2012 in world title fights and was stopped by Mikey Garcia in the eighth round in 2012. He has a pretty good chin with Garcia being the only man to stop him.
Barros lost three bouts in a stretch of four fights at the time in 2011/12. He won the vacant WBA Featherweight Title in 2010 with a seventh-round TKO over Irving Berry. He then defended it against Miguel Roman and Caballero by a unanimous and split decision respectively before losing it to Caballero in a rematch in 2011. His loss against Salgado in 2012 was for the IBF Super Featherweight Crown. Barros’ other top wins have been against Victor Hugo Paz, Carlos Rodriguez and Satoshi Hosono. Barros is a tough customer who has the skills to beat most opponents if he’s at his best.
Prediction…
Barros has plenty of experience and a solid chin, but I think Berchelt’s youth, speed and power will be the difference here. Other than Selby and Hosono, Barros’ opponents over the past few years have been more of the Grade B level and that may hurt him, but he’s definitely faced some fine opposition in his career. I’ll go with Berchelt here and a stoppage is possible in his hometown.
