Andre Berto made it two straight wins after coming back last year from shoulder surgery, beating Josesito Lopez tonight on the PBC on Spike premiere, stopping his fellow rebound hopeful in the sixth round of a solid action fight, with a somewhat controversial finish.
Berto (30-3, 23 KO) was trailing 49-46 on our card at the time of stoppage, but Lopez (33-7, 19 KO) went down hard on a counter right hand, and once back up, was immediately dropped again, which caused referee Raul Caiz Jr to step in and immediately stop the fight. Lopez did appear to be fairly alert, and though his punch resistance was clearly going away on him, and the end may have been near either way, he and his corner certainly wanted the chance to continue, and there's a very good argument they should have been given that opportunity.
Berto struggled early to get off consistently, but didn't look much different than usual. He was a little twitchy, hesitant in an odd way, and his hand speed looked good but his accuracy was leaving something to be desired. On the inside, Lopez was able to maul Berto fairly effectively, and was doing some good work to the body.
Lopez did appear to tire a bit in the fourth and fifth rounds, though, and Berto was starting to time him just a bit better. Obviously, that showed up in round six, with Berto catching and dropping Lopez, and if you were judging how the fight was going just at that point, no doubt Berto would have been favored to end the fight sooner than later. He looked fresher, stronger, and quicker by then.
In some ways, the fight was reminiscent of Lopez's 2013 loss to Marcos Maidana, where he was up on two of the three scorecards after five rounds, but was just overpowered and had already done as much as he could do.
How did you think Berto looked in the win? Does he look like a fighter ready to get back into the mix at 147 pounds? And where does Lopez go from here?