By: Hans Themistode
Heading into his highly-anticipated showdown against Oscar Valdez on February 20th, earlier this year, many believed Miguel Berchelt would walk right through his man. Considering the streak he was on, which consisted of 16 straight wins with 15 of them coming by way of knockout, Berchelt was head and shoulders above the rest of the 130-pound division. With that said, things have changed rapidly.
The competitive all-out brawl that was anticipated was instead replaced with a one-sided beating as Berchelt was dropped in the fourth as well as the ninth round. The Mexican native would hit the deck one final time in the tenth. The moment Berchelt regained conciseness, he realized that sticking around at 130 pounds was no longer an option. While he’s opting for a new change in scenery, he did reveal that he would, in fact, return to the lightweight division if he can get his hands on the man who ended his title reign.
“I have to overcome this defeat,” said Berchelt. “I already know the path in my heart. It’ll be tempered with intelligence and governed by a lot of discipline. We must keep going and we will move up to 135 pounds in my first fight back and then return to 130 pounds, aiming for the possibility of a rematch.”
Originally, Berchelt planned on putting up his WBC lightweight against Valdez on a completely different fight date. However, due to COVID-19, he was forced to postpone their showdown as he recovered from the deadly disease. Although he doesn’t want to take anything away from Valdez and his great performance, if given the chance to do it again, there’s a good chance Berchelt would have taken more time.
“Many know that I had COVID-19, and there was not much recovery time. It’s a disease that we are just getting to be familiar with. There are no excuses, but without a doubt, I am sure that there is a need to regain that scorpion sting. We are going to climb back from all of this even stronger than before.”