Lightweight Showdown
Last night’s Top Rank/ESPN Main Event at the MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas was supposed to be somewhat of a comeback bout for Miguel Berchelt (38-3, 34 Kos) since his demoralizing knockout defeat to WBO Super Featherweight Champion Oscar Valdez 13 Months ago. To avoid the same outcome Miguel decided to move up in weight from the Super Featherweight Division to the Lightweight Division and selected Jeremiah Nakathila (23-2, 19 Kos). Wrong move!
Although Berchelt looked the part physically, he definitely did not act accordingly inside that squared circle. From round one on Nakathila showed Miguel absolutely no respect by moving forward and jabbing him at will all over his face and eventually sitting Berchelt down for a quick 8 count that visibly hurt him until the end of the third round.
Having been dropped from the third round it was quite noticeable that Miguel’s legs were gone. His defence was non-existent leaving himself uncharacteristically open to some heavy uncontested shots. Miguel looked a shell of himself and continued to take unnecessary punishment round after round.
This was a one-sided beating that did not need to go any further. By the end of the sixth round the referee on hand called an end to the bout. Definitely the right call. Miguel will need to re-evaluate his performance tonight and contemplate the inevitable outcome.
That said, Nakathila came in this bout with the right “game plan” and executed it to a “T” and for that, recorded his best win of his career to date.
Congratulations Jeremiah – you earned this convincing win hands down.
Blaze