Miguel Berchelt was forced to retire in the ring in his most recent bout against Jeremia Nakathila in March 2022 when referee Russell Mora waved off the action after six one-sided rounds.
But the former 130-pound champion Berchelt (38-3. 34 KOs) is not retiring from boxing after suffering a vicious knockout to Oscar Valdez in Feb. 2021 and losing his comeback contest against Nakathila as a four-to-one favorite.
“He's coming back. I need to see what the status of his training is. What he really wants, weight class, and everything, and we can go from there,” Berchelt co-promoter Fernando Beltran told BoxingScene.com in an interview.
Beltran insisted that he’d give Berchelt an honest assessment if the Mexican knockout artist nicknamed “El Alacran” still has it.
Berchelt will be turning 32 years old in November.
Berchelt became a junior lightweight champion in 2017 when he knocked out then-undefeated Francisco Vargas. He defended his WBC crown seven times with wins against the likes of Jason Sosa and against Vargas in a rematch.
Berchelt’s last win came in a June 2020 stay-busy bout during the pandemic against unheralded contender Eleazar Valenzuela Carrillo.
Berchelt then met his match against Valdez, as he was outpunched 149 to 99 and dropped three times en route to a brutal 10th round knockout loss. Berchelt was on the wrong side of a debilitating one-punch KO that left many wondering if he would ever be the same.
It became evident against Nakathila that Berchelt – who was making his lightweight debut – had clearly lost a step.
He got dropped in the third round against Nakathila, and ended the fight bloodied and having lost every round on all three scorecards.
Berchelt was outworked in total punches thrown (503 to 287) and outnumbered in total punches landed (125 to 80).
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer, and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com, or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.
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