Berchelt ready for the super featherweight elite

By Felipe Leon
Photo: Zanfer

Max Boxing Promotions’ president, Mario Abraham Xacur, stated his charge interim WBO super featherweight champion Miguel Berchelt is ready for the best in the 130-pound division after defending his title with a 4th round TKO over Thailand’s Chonlatarn Siriyapinyo last Saturday night in La Paz, Mexico. The scheduled twelve round championship bout was the main event of Mexico’s Azteca Channel and presented by Zanfer Promotions.

Abraham Xacur mentioned he is very satisfied with the win of the “Alacran”, scorpion in spanish as Berchelt is called, but more so with the way he won which puts him in the mist with the best of hte weight category.

“Berchelt is ready to face any of the super featherweight champions,” Abraham Xacur of Merida, Mexico, added. “Lomachenko, Vargas, Corrales or Pedraza.”

The president of Max Boxing believes with Berchelt becoming the first man to knock out the tough Piriyapinyo in more than sixty fights, it makes the defense of the title as valid as if it was the full-fledged title that Lomachenko holds and not just simply of the interim version.

“The fight was against the number two ranked fighter by the organization with a record of 63 fights, 61 wins and 41 knockouts, only two losses and he had never been knocked out,” he explained. “It was a good win. Berchelt was the first to knock him out, a feat other world ranked fighters like Chris John and Vasyl Lomachenko didn’t achieve.”

Berchelt was scheduled to face the then WBO champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez in March of this year after his team won a purse bid but Martinez claimed to have injured a hand. Not soon after it was announced he would fight Lomachenko. He did this past June and Lomachenko captured the title with a fifth round KO.

“If that fight would have happened, Martinez goes away in five rounds, “ Abraham Xacur stated confidently. “They knew it was going to happen and that is why they didn’t fight Berchelt.”

Along with his partner Zanfer Promotions, Abraham Xacur is looking at possibility of Berchelt returing to the United States for a fight. In 2013 he stopped Carlos Claudio in the first at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on the undercard of Mike Alvarado’s win over Brandon Rios. If the US fight can’t be achieved then Berchelt will continue to fight in Mexico.

Regarding a possible fight between Orlando “Fenomeno” Cruz, Abraham Xacur mentioned that for the moment no talks have been started but Berchelt and his team are open to any possibility. On behalf of Berchelt, he called out the world champions to try their mettle against who he calls the hardest puncher in the division.

“Berchelt holds a record of 31 fights, thirty wins, twenty-seven by knockout with a 87% KO ratio,” he said. “Much better than any other of the current full-fledged world champions.”

Abraham Xacur is looking for Berchelt to be back in the gym in two weeks and then back in the ring by October looking to defend his interim title once against an opponent to be named later.