Andre Berto turned in the gutsiest performance of his life against Luis Collazo at the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. A near knockdown in the first round (the ropes kept him up), a point deducted for holding in round four, and Collazo's unquenchable spirit nearly beat the 25-year-old. Nearly.
The judges scores were 116-111 from one judge and 114-113 from the other two. Suite101 scored the fight a draw, 114-114.
Exciting from start to finish, with waves of activity from each man threatening to carry the other into deep water, the fight could have reasonably gone to Collazo - a fact that Berto, 24-0 (19), tacitly acknowledged by dominating round twelve. Hard bodyshots, uppercuts, and a whistling right hand found Collazo, 29-4 (14), repeatedly in the final round. Not that the Puerto Rican-born fighter didn't have his moments, he did, but he didn't have the firepower he would need to keep Berto off of him.
Recently bruised up in the boxing media as a world title holder who had the luxury of never fighting a top contender, Berto can now say, with confidence that he has beaten a top ten welterweight. His championship status is, to a degree, legitimized. But there are still questions.
First of all, Collazo, in spite of his many tattos, isn't really a scary guy. That is to say, he isn't a hard puncher. Yet many times during the fight he had Berto back on his heels. One can't help but wonder how well Berto would handle bigger punchers like Kermit Cintron, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, or even Shane Mosley.
There also seems to be a training deficiency somewhere in the Berto camp. Why did Berto get rocked by a Collazo left in round one? Because he circled to his right, directly into the path of Callazo's straight left hand. Collazo's lack of power was the only thing that kept Berto out of the loss column. He squares his feet on when infighting too. While it's nice to be talented, it's even better to be smart. Berto's camp needs to work a little harder on the smart.
The immediate future for Berto is probably devoid of too many monsters, with Margarito, Mosley, and Cotto likely to be doing the dosey-doe for the better part of 2009. Joshua Clottey is coming off a thorough whipping of Zab Judah and would be a good choice. His straight ahead style, though tough to deal with, would provide plenty of opportunity for Berto to land and, at the same time stay sharp, because a less than first-rate effort against Clottey could easily plunk his welterweight rear in the loss column.
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