BOXING CLEVER
Berchelt resists urge for slugfest and eases past Miura
IN January, Miguel Berchelt overwhelmed Francisco Vargas, and Takashi Miura rallied to stop Miguel Roman, in two early Fight of the Year candidates. Given that, and given Miura’s previous history – including a dramatic 2015 loss to Vargas that was voted that year’s Fight of the Year, it was reasonable to expect that Berchelt’s clash with Miura would produce similar fireworks. It didn’t, as the man from Cancun deployed footwork and boxing skills to build up a commanding lead through eight rounds and then withstand a late charge from the Japanese southpaw to win the second of two super-featherweight battles, and retain the WBC world title belt, at The Forum.
Berchelt knew that Miura’s best chance was to drag him into the war, and from the very first bell it was clear that he had no intention of allowing the man from Akita to do anything of the sort. As Miura stalked forward, Berchelt circled, backward and away from Miura’s dangerous left hand, waiting for an opportunity to present itself whenever his opponent reached too far forward and left him exposed to a counter. The perfect opening arrived in the opening frame, as Miura leaned in and Berchelt stepped to his left and landed a straight right and left hook to Miura’s temple that sent the Japanese boxer down. Miura beat the count of referee Raul Caiz Snr, but looked less than robust, and over the next couple of rounds, he continued to struggle with Berchelt’s ring generalship and combination punching.
Miura showed the first spark of life in the fourth, as he began to find the range for his left hand, but he demonstrated surprisingly little ability to cut off the ring or throw more than one punch at a time, and every time it appeared he might be on the verge of breaking through, Berchelt responded with another set of combinations before sliding away and resetting.
Not until the ninth did Miura appear clearly to win a round, as a tiring Berchelt slowed a fraction, enabling his opponent to finally find success with his vaunted body work. Miura now was putting everything he could into huge torqueing left hands to the Mexican’s midsection, but although the momentum had shifted to him, it was not with sufficient authority, or with enough time remaining, to suggest that he might indeed snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Indeed, Berchelt rallied to win the twelfth and put any hope of a Miura comeback out of reach. Judge Mauro di Fiore scored the bout 120-109, Max Deluca 119-108 and Hubert Minn 116-111 for Berchelt.
The first of the two super featherweight bouts on HBO’S Boxing After Dark
broadcast was a scrappy affair with a not completely satisfactory conclusion, as Panama’s Jezreel Corrales won a majority technical decision over
Robinson Castellanos to retain his 130 lb. belt. After an opening three rounds in which Corrales, from Panama City, appeared to take an early lead with flurries of punches that gathered points without inflicting damage, Castellanos, who recently upended Yuriorkis Gamboa, dropped him to his knees with a counter left in the fourth. Corrales responded by sitting down more on his punches and taking the fight to his opponent, only for Castellanos, from Celaya, Mexico, to knock him down again, this time on to his rump.
Corrales recovered well, scoring a knockdown of his own on a left hand just before the bell to end the seventh, but the clash of styles led to a severe clash of heads as Corrales fell forward as he threw a punch in the tenth and his forehead opened a huge gash on Castellanos’ cheek. The Mexican’s right eye swelled, the ringside physician told referee Jerry Cantu that Castellanos could not continue, and the fight went to the cards. Zac Young saw a 94-94 draw, but Carla Caiz edged it 94-93 while Pat Russell saw it 96-92 for Corrales.
Light-heavyweight Sullivan Barrera
made it three wins in a row since his only professional defeat, to Andre Ward, as he outclassed Bernard Hopkins’ conqueror
Joe Smith Jnr. A Smith left hand dropped Barrera in the first, but apart from that the resident of Miami, Florida had far too much for the Long Islander, who could not cope with the Cuban émigré’s movement and fast combinations. Scores after 10 rounds of what had originally been slated as a 12-round contest were 96-93 from Omar Mintum and 97-92 from Eddie Hernandez Snr and Fernando Villareal. Referee was Jack Reiss.