Miguel Berchelt vs. Orlando Salido in the works for December

Boxingnews24.com

By Allan Fox: WBC super featherweight champion Miguel Berchelt (32-1, 28 KOs) and #1 WBC Orlando Salido (44-13-4, 31 KOs) will be facing each other on HBO World Championship Boxing on either December 9 or December 16, according to Dan Rafael.

The fighters have agreed to the deal. There’s still no set date or site for the fight. The fighters haven’t yet signed for the fight, but they want the fight to go ahead.

Berchelt beat WBC World super featherweight champion Francisco Vargas earlier this year in stopping him in the 11th round on January 28. The fight was supposed to be competitive, but it turned out to be a real mismatch. Bechelt was way too good for Vargas. It may have been a case of Vargas coming into the fight with Berchelt at an inconvenient time. Just 7 months earlier, Vargas had fought Orlando Salido to a 12-round draw in a fight that was a war from start to finish. Boxing News 24 scored the fight to Salido 9 rounds to 3.

It looked like an easy win for Salido, but the judges felt differently in giving Vargas a draw that he didn’t deserve. Berchelt wasn’t going to let himself get potentially robbed in his fight with Vargas, so he knocked him out in the 11th round.

In Berchelt’s first defense of his WBC belt, he beat Takashi Miura by a 12 round unanimous decision on July 15 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Berchelt stood and slugged with Miura and took his best shots. Miura did hurt Berchelt late in the fight, but he was able to recover quickly and continue to fight hard.

This is a tough fight for the soon to be 37-year-old Salido, who hasn’t had a real fight since his controversial 12 round draw against Francisco Vargas last year on June 4. That was clearly a robbery for Salido, and his third in a row. Before that, Salido fought to a 12-round draw against Roman Martinez in September 2015.

Salido did more than enough to rate the win in that fight, as he did in his first fight with Martinez in April of 2015. Salido has had a tough time with his fights against A-side fighters in the last 2 years. Unfortunately, Salido may have the same problems with the highly hyped Berchelt. Depending on how much Salido has left in the tank, he could possibly pull off the upset and beat Berchelt.

It might be tough on Salido to get the decision unless he does something extraordinary. If this is a prime version of Salido we see in December, then he might be able to beat Berchelt. Salido isn’t going to head hunt as much as the guys that have fought Berchelt recently. It’s a waste of time to throw shots to the head of Berchelt because he takes them well. The shots you need to hit him with are body punches. Salido is very good at throwing body shots.

Salido was hurt early in his last contest by journeyman Aristides Perez in the 4th round in their fight on May 27. Salido did come back to score a stoppage in the 7th round, but it was a harder fight than some thought it would be.