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By Lyle Fitzsimmons - I’ve always had a thing for Andre Berto.
I saw him fight for the first time when he was still a single-digit novice – in his seventh pro fight, to be exact – deep on the undercard of the Tarver-Jones III sleepwalk in downtown Tampa, Fla.
We caught up again about a year later, when he blasted out no-hoper Roberto Valenzuela in less than a round underneath the Forrest-Quartey scrap in the small room at Madison Square Garden.
I lauded him as “Prospect of the Year” for a column I wrote back then on a long-since capsized website, and I patiently waited for the promise to catch up to the potential.
I interviewed him now and then along the way after that, and I have to admit I was thrilled – as I sat in a hotel room in the Cayman Islands (after sitting ringside for Andre Ward a night before) – to see him dispatch Miki Rodriguez with a sweet right-hand uppercut and earn himself a title belt in June 2008.
In spite of his fun new status, I had no illusions that he was actually the best welterweight in a world that then featured names like Margarito, Cotto, Williams. Still, when we talked a few days after he whipped Steve Forbes for defense No. 1 a few months later, confidence was the least of his issues.
“Yes, I think I am the best welterweight out there,” he said. “I believe it, and I know that in due time I'll be able to prove to everyone else that I'm No. 1. I think I have the total package when you combine speed, power, agility and the ability to adjust to any sort of style from the opposition.
“I'm the first of the new breed of fighter in this weight class and I'm eager to make big fights with the rest of the big names out there.”
I thought of all that again late Saturday night. [Click Here To Read More]
I saw him fight for the first time when he was still a single-digit novice – in his seventh pro fight, to be exact – deep on the undercard of the Tarver-Jones III sleepwalk in downtown Tampa, Fla.
We caught up again about a year later, when he blasted out no-hoper Roberto Valenzuela in less than a round underneath the Forrest-Quartey scrap in the small room at Madison Square Garden.
I lauded him as “Prospect of the Year” for a column I wrote back then on a long-since capsized website, and I patiently waited for the promise to catch up to the potential.
I interviewed him now and then along the way after that, and I have to admit I was thrilled – as I sat in a hotel room in the Cayman Islands (after sitting ringside for Andre Ward a night before) – to see him dispatch Miki Rodriguez with a sweet right-hand uppercut and earn himself a title belt in June 2008.
In spite of his fun new status, I had no illusions that he was actually the best welterweight in a world that then featured names like Margarito, Cotto, Williams. Still, when we talked a few days after he whipped Steve Forbes for defense No. 1 a few months later, confidence was the least of his issues.
“Yes, I think I am the best welterweight out there,” he said. “I believe it, and I know that in due time I'll be able to prove to everyone else that I'm No. 1. I think I have the total package when you combine speed, power, agility and the ability to adjust to any sort of style from the opposition.
“I'm the first of the new breed of fighter in this weight class and I'm eager to make big fights with the rest of the big names out there.”
I thought of all that again late Saturday night. [Click Here To Read More]
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