The first fight between Andre Berto and Victor Ortiz was one of the best surprises of last year. Few people expected Victor Ortiz to be a beast at welterweight, yet he took some absolute bombs from Berto and managed to control the fight. Most of us were quite excited to see the rematch, but then Berto injured his bicep. It seems that some good news on the bicep injury has come from The Ring. Berto has started to do a little boxing work and it seems that he is on track to be fit enough to start training in April. Since the fight is scheduled for June 23rd, this will give Berto ample time to run a full training camp.
In other news, it seems that Victor Ortiz's team is a little frustrated by the delay. Ortiz's manager, Rolando Arellando, says that Victor will be ready to ‘move on' if Berto is not ready by the June 23rd date. The team is targeting Devon Alexander after his impressive performance against Marcos Maidana.
"Anyone who makes a lot of good sense, and Devon Alexander would be one because we want to fight the best of the best, and our division is hot," said Arellano. "They're all great fighters, and once they start bumping each other off, that will determine who the next great pay per view guy will be."
The manager goes on to talk about how he doesn't want to hold back Victor Ortiz's career by waiting on Andre Berto, which is utterly ridiculous. He fought a gigantic two times last year and fought one of the big cash cows in the division. Manny Pacquiao is not walking through the door to fight him and I'm not sure if any network is going to pay him the kind of cash he is getting from Showtime for this fight. Also, Alexander is not going to be ready until late July, according to Kevin Cunningham, so why not just wait until Berto is ready? I think Ortiz against Alexander is an interesting fight between two southpaws, but it doesn't need to happen right now. If Ortiz manages to beat Berto again, who would you like to see him take on next? Alexander? Someone else?