Carlo Magali steps in for Cristian Mijares against Miguel Berchelt

Despite the loss of original foe Cristian Mijares, Miguel Berchelt’s February 10th title defense will go on as planned. ESPN reports that “El Alacran” will instead face the Philippines’ Carlo Magali in Cancun.

I get that beggars can’t be choosers on short notice, but if the Mijares matchup was iffy, this one is downright criminal. While Magali (23-9-3, 12 KO) owns the OPBF super featherweight title, he is ranked 39th by the WBC and comes up short practically every time he tries to step up. Berchelt (32-1, 28 KO), who has a strong claim of being the division’s #2 behind Vasyl Lomachenko, is going to thrash him something awful.

Berchelt needs to fight either Lomachenko or mandatory challenger Mickey Roman after this. He gets some slack for this being his first fight after injury, but not that much.