Now two weeks removed from his disastrous knockout loss to Oscar Valdez, his first defeat in more than six years, former WBC super featherweight champion Miguel Berchelt” sat down with ESPN KnockOut to offer a retrospective on the loss and reveal his plans for the future.
Though he doesn’t wish to denigrate Valdez’s work, “El Alacran” (37-2, 33 KO) cites the difficult cut to 130 as a factor in his defeat, claiming he “didn’t feel quick like on other nights” and was never physically in the fight. He sees a move to 135 in the near future, though he’ll sit down with his team and do a full analysis of his performance before committing to a specific course of action.
In addition, Berchelt takes responsibility for trainer Alfredo Caballero not stopping the fight before the climactic punch, saying he told Caballero not to do so. He also vows to take a page from Rocky’s book and bounce back strong.
Standing 5’7” and boasting a 71.5” reach, the latter of which is longer than any of BoxRec’s top-10 lightweights’, Berchelt has the frame to physically compete at 135. At the same time, his notoriously leaky defense and the division’s abundance of heavy hitters could prove an unfortunate combination. That said, he’s still just 29, so I wouldn’t go writing him off just yet.