2009 for Boxing fans officially kicks off on Saturday (Sunday for us Aussies) with a clash for the WBC Welterweight title. With the Boxing World awaiting next weekends bout between Shane Mosley and Antonio Margarito for the right to call themself the top fighter at 147lbs, an interesting fight takes place this weekend in the same division with WBC Champion Andre Berto will put his title on the line against former WBA champion Luis Collazo. There’s a lot of hype around Berto and some are predicting this to be his coming out party where he will announce himself as one of the top dogs in one of boxings glamour divisions. However, Collazo should not be underestimated as he gave both Shane Mosley and Ricky Hatton (especially Hatton) hard fought fights in losing efforts in his only two big fights of his career.
Andre Berto
Berto had an accomplished amatuer career where he won the National Golden Gloves titles twice, won a bronze medal for the United States at the 2003 World Amatuer Championships and represented Haiti in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Berto quickly rose up the ranks as a young prospect, winning his first 15 fights inside his first two years as a professional. After some good wins early in 2007, Berto faced his first real test against tough veteran Cosme Rivera. After surviving a 6th round knockdown, Berto again took control of the fight and pounded out a 10 round unanimous decision against the rugged Rivera.
Next up was another tough fighter in David Estrada on the Pavlik-Taylor I undercard. Estrada had taken Shane Mosley the distance and gone 10 rounds with Kermit Cintron prior to this fight. After a hard fought fight in which Berto was in control of, he ended the fight with a barrage of punches in the 11th round making him the mandatory challenger for Floyd Mayweather’s WBC title and Kermit Cintron’s IBF title. Nine months later he got his shot at Mayweather’s title (not against Mayweather as he had retired) taking on and defeating Miguel Rodriguez for the vacant title. In his last outing, Berto defeated durable veteran Steve Forbes over 12 rounds to retain his title, bringing his record to a perfect 23-0-0 (19 KOs).
Berto is still a young fighter and has plenty of room to improve which is credit to his natural ability that he can win a world title without reaching his full potential. Berto carries quick hands, has decent reflexes and above average power. There really isn’t anything that Berto does that I would call ’special’ in terms of what great boxers have done in the past. His handspeed can be blistering and his power can look to be deadly but he doesn’t have the speed that a Mayweather has that dazzles you or the power that a Pavlik has that makes you think ‘oh fuck!’ Basically, Berto does everything well but not to the point where he really stands out in one particular area.
Luis Collazo
Luis Collazo won the WBA ‘regular’ title back in 2005 with a split decision win over Jose Rivera. After battering Miguel Angel Gonzalez in his only successful defence of the title he was picked as a sort of ’stay busy big fight’ by Ricky Hatton and took his oppurtunity. After getting dropped in the opening seconds, Collazo outboxed the 140lb champion for much of the very evenly fought contest and even had Hatton hurt a few times in the later rounds. After 12 close rounds Hatton was awarded a controversial split decision and Collazo’s WBA title (which by then was elevated to the normal title after the sanctioning bodies tried to fuck Carlos Baldomir up the arse and ended up with their dicks covered in shit). Collazo then dropped a 12 round decision to Shane Mosley in a fight that was a lot closer then the judges scored it (although Mosley was the clear winner) for the WBC interim title in February of 2007. Since then he has had a lot of trouble getting decent opposition in the ring, fighting only twice in the last two years.
Collazo is one of the more underrated fighters in boxing today. For someone who gave Mosley and Hatton as much trouble as he did, he really doesn’t get the credit he deserves. It might be the fact that he has an awkward style which is further awkwafied by the fact that he’s a southpaw. It might be the fact that he has a long reach as far as welterweights go which makes him one of those pricks who people don’t want to spar let alone fight. Either way, Collazo is a good boxer with decent power (a lot better then his 14/29 KO ratio suggests) who is hard to hit cleanly and makes anyone he fights look bad.
The Gameplans
Berto has to fight patiently in this fight. If he tries to rush and get Collazo out of there quick he’s going to play right into his hands. He has to make Collazo throw punches to open him up and not let him sit back and counter punch. Berto will have a big edge in speed and power in this fight but with Collazo’s reach advantage and awkward southpaw style a lot of it will be negated so Berto will have to show patience and pick his shots. The other thing Berto should do is work the body early in the fight to make Collazo’s later rounds harder then they’ll already be because of his ring rust.
Collazo has to do his best to frustrate his inexperienced opponent. Despite being the challenger, Collazo has been in with the far better guys and this will work to his advantage if Berto has trouble with his long arms and southpaw jab. Collazo has to make Berto miss and counter him and put some doubts into his mind if he’s going to win this fight. Collazo will definately have to start fast in this fight because logic suggests with his lack of ring time that he’ll fade down the stretch whereas Berto will be in good shape for 12 rounds.
Prediction
First of all I have to say Berto has shown kahunas the size of bowling balls for taking on someone like Collazo. He’s on the verge of really entering the big time and a guy like Collazo could make him look very bad which will take some of the shine off him or even beat him so win, lose or draw, full credit to Berto for taking on Collazo. Despite my high thinking of Collazo, I think Berto will win a close but comfortable enough unanimous decision in an awkward fight. The simple facts are Berto has the better handspeed and has fought 14 times in the last three years as opposed to Collazo’s five fights. I don’t think it will be pretty and I think Berto will look ordinary at times but his edge in speed and Collazo’s likely ring rust will be the deciding factors down the stretch. After an even first six-eight rounds, Berto should take over and run away with the fight on the cards. Andre Berto by unanimous decision.
