WBC welterweight titleholder Andre Berto was primed to make his mark on the welterweight division in January of this year. He was scheduled to face WBA welterweight titleholder ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosely in a unification belt showdown. However, with a few weeks left before the fight tragedy struck. That’s when Berto’s home country of Haiti was hit with the worst disaster in its nation’s history. The earthquake left the nation crippled and Berto unable to continue on with his fight against Mosely.
Now almost three months later, Berto (25-0, 19 KO's) will be back in the ring tonight against former welterweight titlist Carlos Quintana. Quintana (27-2, 21 KO’s), who is moving back down to welterweight for the fight, will be looking for the upset. In his last two bouts, fighting at junior middleweight, Quintana has won easily by TKO. However, those two opponents combined have 22 losses.
To date, Quintana’s best win came in February of ’08 against than welterweight champion Paul Williams. It was a huge upset that no one thought could happen. The upset just proved to be a slight bump in the road for Williams though, as he pummeled Quintana in their rematch, ending the fight in just two minutes. The short title reign for Quintana proved it was just a lack of focus by Williams in their first fight.
But Carlos Quintana is a tough and active fighter. He draws a lot of similarities to welterweight Luis Collazo, a fighter Berto struggled to defeat early last year. Quintana could be a tough fighter for Berto to stop. However, Quintana’s skill set is nowhere near as elite as Berto’s.
Andre Berto has the fastest hands in boxing and has proved to be very durable over his last few fights. Quintana can hurt him, but Berto has shown he can stand through a lot of adversity in the ring. In the end, Berto’s punching volume will be too much for Quintana to keep up with. I think Berto wins a fairly easy decision.
Prediction:
Berto via UD
Fans in Cleveland have written me what they think about the Berto-Quintana fight tonight.
Ray in Cleveland writes,
“Berto is good. Don’t think he would have beaten Mosley, but he’ll roll Quintana.”
I think Berto would have caused a lot of problems for Mosley with his quickness. Mosley would have had a hard time chasing Berto down and hitting him. Similar to the issues he is going to have with Floyd Mayweather. Berto is not that skilled, at least not yet, to Floyd but he is a similar in style. Hopefully, Berto will get a shot at the Mosley-Mayweather loser or perhaps even Josh Clottey in his next fight.
Nick in Cleveland Heights writes,
“Carlos (Quintana) is tough and could cause Berto issues, similar to Collazo. The fight is a toss up to me.”
Thanks for writing Nick. I don’t think there is any toss up here. Berto should handle Quintana rather easily. He is just too skilled. Yes Quintana is tough, but so are a lot of guys. Quintana will just not be able to land enough punches.
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