By Lem Satterfield
WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto wants to send a strong message when he makes the fifth defense of his title against Mexico City's Freddy Hernandez on an HBO televised tripleheader on November 27 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The card will also feature WBO and WBA lightweight titlist Juan Manuel Marquez (51-5-1, 37 KOs) defending against Michael Katsidis (27-2, 22 KOs), and Celestino Caballero (34-2, 23 KOs) rising to super featherweight against Jason Litzau (27-2, 21 KOs).
Berto (26-0, 20 KOs) has big goals for 2011. He wants the biggest possible fights in the next twelve months. In order to get there, he needs to be very impressive against Hernandez (29-1, 20 KOs).
In reality, Berto knows a victory over Hernandez will not mean much without a spectacular performance behind it. He plans to be a little more aggressive against Hernandez. Berto wants to win with a knockout.
"At the end of the day, realistically, the only thing that counts is a victory. Freddy Hernandez has been achieving for his whole career. At the end of the day, the win is all that counts. But my mentality has definitely changed so that I'm a crowd-pleaser," Berto said.
"A lot of fighters don't care about the crowd situation and they just want to get a win. But I'm going to be myself and I believe that's really just going in there and not really looking to go the distance at all."
In 2011, Berto has a plan for the perfect year. He would like to face Shane Mosley in the first quarter. If he wins, he would like to get WBA 154-pound champion Miguel Cotto by the summer, and then finish off the year with a Manny Pacquiao showdown.
"I'm letting you know now that if it was all up to me, after Freddy Hernandez, if I could line things up for next year then it would be Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto and then Manny Pacquiao. If I could get all three of them next year, you know, that would be my route that I would want to go in. Then, I think that with that, I would be able to be satisfied. That would definitely satisfy myself and that would definitely show where I'm at," Berto said.
Lem Satterfield is the boxing editor at AOL FanHouse and the news editor at BoxingScene.com. To read more from Lem Satterfield, go to AOL FanHouse by Clicking Here.
