Miguel Berchelt Outpoints Takashi Miura to Retain 130-Pound Title in HBO Main Event

Miguel Berchelt was masterful against Takashi Miura in the main event of the latest edition of HBO’s Boxing After Dark on Saturday night, and while he won a lopsided unanimous decision, it certainly wasn’t as easy as the official indicated.

Berchelt knocked Miura down with a perfect one-two to the head early in the first and he never looked back. The Mexican attacked his foe’s head and body throughout the contest, racking up round after round with surgical precision. Miura continuously dug thudding left hooks to the body in an effort to slow Berchelt down, but the Japanese knockout artist never was able to get his offense firing on all cylinders.

Berchelt (32-1, 28 KOs) fought beautifully behind his jab and picked Miura apart whenever he tried to get inside. “El Alacran” slowed down his attacks in the championship rounds as his challenger turned up the heat, though many of Miura’s body shots visibly shook Berchelt. Fighting on desperation, Miura (31-4-2, 24 KOs) did everything he could to turn the tides with one punch, but Berchelt’s swift footwork and awkward angles continuously gave Miura fits, nullifying his last-ditch efforts to win.

In the end, Berchelt walked away with a unanimous decision victory via tallies of 116-111, 119-108 and 120-109 to retain his WBC super featherweight title, dazzling the thousands in attendance inside the Fabulous Forum just outside Los Angeles.

Jezreel Corrales was able to hang onto his WBA super featherweight title – barely – as he won a majority decision over Robinson Castellanos in the co-feature. Corrales (22-1, 8 KOs) was taken off his feet twice in the third frame, but he stormed back later on to drop Castellanos in the seventh. Castellanos (22-12, 14 KOs) suffered a nasty laceration over his eye from an accidental clash of heads early in the contest and in the 10th, suffered another cut below his eye, also from a butt. After an examination from the ringside physician, the fight was halted, forcing it to go to the cards. From there, one judge had it 94-94, while the two others saw it for Corrales 94-93 and 96-92, allowing him to retain his belt via majority technical decision.

In the opening bout of the HBO telecast, light heavyweight contender Sullivan Barrera survived a first-round knockdown to rally past Joe Smith Jr. A left hook dropped Barrera and Smith Jr. nearly had him out in the opening frame, but Barrera (20-1, 14 KOs) cleared his head and picked his foe apart for the remainder of the contest. Barrera ripped Smith Jr. to the head and body and while Smith Jr. (23-2, 19 KOs) landed some decent blows of his own, the fight belonged to Barrera, who won a unanimous decision via scores of 97-92 (twice) and 96-93.