Photos: Sumio Yamada
WBC super featherweight world champion Miguel “Alacrán” Berchelt (37-1, 33 KOs) scored a very impressive fourth round TKO against game former world champion Jason Sosa (22-4-4, 16 KOs) on Saturday night at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
Making the sixth defense of the title, Berchelt dropped Sosa twice in round two, then punished him with big shots for the rest of the round. Berchelt floored Sosa again in round four. The bout continued and Berchelt battered Sosa until the corner stopped it. Time was 2:56.
Berchelt now has his eyes on defense number seven with former featherweight world champion Oscar Valdez on his radar.
“It was a great performance. I want to congratulate Jason,” Berchelt said. “He came to put on a great fight, and I have a lot of love for him. I want to wait until Valdez fights on November 30. If he wants this belt, come and get it!”
Said Sosa: “He’s a great champion. He’s defended it six times. He has serious power.”
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Probably the end of Sosa’s career. Shame he literally spent every cent from the Loma fight on nothing of note
As expected, Berchelt earned his shot against Loma.
By beating a mere contender at 130? I’m pretty sure he’s going to have to go up to 135 and beat somebody of note there to get a shot at Lomachenko. There is a long line at 135 to fight the number one pound-for-pound fighter. Berchelt will need to get in that line.
Chris, Loma is talking about coming back down to his more natural weight of 130.
@Chris: Berchelt has shown impressive performances and he is generally rated as #1 super feather weight. I have no idea why you call him a “contender”. Gervonta is rated #2-5, depending on whom you ask.
Haney, Commey or Lopez would be other options for Loma.
From what I understand, Loma doesn’t want to move up to 140, which means he will either stay at 135 or go back down to 130.
I don’t see any other realistic options aside of these 5 potential next opponents.
Loma’s main considerations will be a/unification and b/ popularity of the fight. The fight that will most likely generate most interest is Gervonta, then Haney, then Berchelt.
Personally, I think that at this point in time, Loma can and will still defeat all of them.
His nickname is Alacrán (scorpion) not alarcron..
The two best fights at 135 aren’t Berchelt vs. Lomachenko or the winner of Lopez vs. Commey. Lomachenko vs. Devin Haney and Lomachenko vs. Gervonta Davis are the best match up, but unfortunately none of them will ever happen. Davis’ matchmaking is under Mayweather and Leonard Ellerbe mentality (Mares, Ruiz, Gamboa and some others, once good )Davis is very talented, but his real potential might never be seen. Eddie Hearn was making his move to stage Lomachenko vs. Haney (same way as he did with Crolla and Campbell) Arum didn’t want that fight, and that was one of the reasons he went to Mexico to secure the franchise champion for Lomachenko, aborting any possibility of this happening.
Commey and Lopez are unworthy opponents for Lomachenko, both have been exposed to be just average. The worst idea for Lomachenko is to go up to 140 (he might get murdered in there), so at the end maybe 2020 we gonna have some more mismatches from Lomachenko with the winner of Lopez vs. Commey and maybe Berchelt.
Berchelt is always a fun watch! He’s a large 130 with great offense, so I’d love to see him against anybody of note at 130 or if he has to move up anybody at 135. As for a Loma fight…for his sake I hope he gets Valdez first. Valdez is no walkover, but I don’t see him beating Loma. No matter where he goes though, I’ll be watching.
Quick thanks to a true warrior Jason Sosa. The body shots he absorbed made me cringe and yet when faced with the opportunity to quit, he kept going. Thank God his corner stopped it! I wonder if he could go down to 126? If he must continue, then maybe that would be a better weight class for him.
@Scott: I too think that Berchelt deserves more attention. He is an all out action fighter who has proven himself in many wars lately. The Sosa fight ended exactly the way I expected it – Sosa is just not on his level. Berchelt is in his prime now, and I think that his next 5-10 fights will all be barn burners.