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Just three years and a half years since turning professional, Florida welterweight Andre Berto won the prestigious WBC title belt last night at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, TN but thoroughly outclassing opponent Miguel Angel Rodriguez on the way to banging out a seventh round TKO.
From the first bell, the 24 year old Berto peppered his 29 year old rival from Naucalpan, Mexico with a blazingly fast two-handed attack that Rodriguez had few answers for.
Berto forced the taller Rodriguez to fight on the inside and masterfully mixed uppercuts at short range coupled with spearing body shots before dropping back to fire off stunning lead right crosses and left hooks that rarely seemed to miss.
Rodriguez was rocked as early as the second round but the gritty Mexican never stopped trying until he was leveled by a Berto uppercut in the seventh.
It all came to an end for Rodriguez at 2:13 of the frame as he was canvassed again, prompting referee Laurence Cole to step in and call a halt to the action.
With the stoppage, Berto improves to 22-0 (19) and captures the vacant WBC Welterweight title in dominating fashion. Rodriguez loses for the first time since dropping a title eliminator bout to Carlos Baldomir in 2005 and falls to 29-3 (23).
In other action at the FedEx Forum, previously undefeated heavyweights Chris Arreola, 24-0 (21), and Chazz Witherspoon, 23-1 (15), duelled for Arreola’s WBC Continental Americas title in a scheduled 12 rounder.
California’s Arreola proved to have the upper hand early on, flooring Witherspoon twice in the third before being awarded the victory by disqualification as Witherspoon’s corner jumped into the ring to offer their fighter assistance after the second knockdown.
