We may have seen the last of Miguel Berchelt (38-3, 34 KOs) inside of a boxing ring. In tonight’s ESPN main event, lightweight Jeremiah Nakathila (23-2, 19 KOs) largely dominated and really put a beating on the former Mexican champion, forcing a stoppage after six full rounds of action. Nakathila came out quickly to start the fight, immediately looking to test the chin and confidence of Miguel Berchelt who was coming off a devastating knockout loss to Oscar Valdez in his last outing.
As it appeared, Nakathila had exactly the right idea as he was able to force Berchelt back and consistently land straight right hands to the head which really shook Berchelt up and robbed him of whatever movement he might’ve mustered going forward. And as the rounds wore on it became clear that Nakathila’s inflicted damage was piling up as he managed to drop Berchelt in the third round with a jab.
To Berchelt’s credit, even though he was largely getting beat up he managed to summon some fury just when it looked like he was on his way out, taking the fifth round on my card as he landed some big shots on Nakathila, making it clear he was willing to fight fire with fire. Unfortunately Berchelt’s legs still never really recovered from the early damage and it wasn’t long before Nakathila started coming back on, walking down Berchelt and plastering him with punches. As the end of the sixth round the referee, upon advice from the ringside physician had seen enough, stopping the fight right then and there, securing Nakathila a TKO victory.
Berchelt vs Nakathila highlights
Eduardo Baez MD-10 Jose Enrique Vivas
Featherweights Eduardo Baez and Jose Enrique Vivas put on a fun fight that featured plenty of action from the opening bell, only with Baez clearly getting the better of his with his ability to mix up his attack on the inside and outside, as well as countering effectively while moving backwards.
The biggest issue Vivas (21-2, 11 KOs) had here was he was never able to break up his rhythm which made it easy for Baez (21-2-2, 7 KOs) to time Vivas coming in with combination punches. And as Baez was able to walk Vivas into shots and that happened early and often enough for him to take the fight on the cards. At the end of the fight the official judges turned in scores of 95-95 (which is tough for me to figure), 98-92, and 96-94 for Baez. BLH scored the fight 98-92 for Baez, who gets to move on to bigger and better things from here.
