Miguel Roman Stops Perez in Four, Targets Berchelt Title Shot

By Miguel Roman

Miguel 'Micky' Roman stayed on pace to a world title shot at the Josué Nery Santos Municipal Gymnasium in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua in Mexico.

Roman (59-12, 46 KOs) is the mandatory challenger to WBC super featherweight king Miguel Berchelt, who retained his title earlier tonight with a third round stoppage of Maxwell Awuku in Cancun.

Roman only needed four rounds to break down and stop experienced Colombian contender Aristides Perez in the main event of the card, and in the process he retained the international title of the World Boxing Council.

Roman became the mandatory challenger last December in Las Vegas, after pulling off an upset knockout victory over Orlando Salido in an HBO televised headliner.

The fight with Salido was a big upset, as the veteran was in line for mandatory shot at Berchelt. After the win, Roman submitted an appeal to the World Boxing Council to replace Salido as the mandatory challenger and the sanctioning body approved his request a few weeks ago.

Also, the fight with Salido was highly considered to be the Fight of The Year for 2017, but it passed over in favor of the tremendous heavyweight bout between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko.

Now the stage is set for a Mexican war between two big punchers in the division.

They had a common opponent last year. Roman was stopped earlier in the year by Takashi Miura in a final WBC eliminator, and then Berchelt dominated the Japanese fighter over twelve rounds.

Berchelt has already stated that he wants to face one of the other three champions in his next bout, but the WBC is pushing very hard to get him and Roman in the ring by the summer.

Roman is also pushing for that contest to take place as soon as possible. After his stoppage of Perez, he made it very clear that he wants to fight Berchelt next.