Miguel Berchelt stops Jonathan Barros, retains WBC belt

Miguel Berchelt was the bigger, younger man in the ring tonight in Merida, Mexico, and was able to easily retain his WBC super featherweight title with a third round stoppage of Jonathan Barros.

Berchelt (34-1, 30 KO) won his 13th straight fight, 12 of those by stoppage. It was his third successful defense of the title that he won in January 2017 from Francisco Vargas, following with victories over Takashi Miura and Maxwell Awuku.

Berchelt looked strong and sharp in the opening round, and then put Barros (41-6-1, 22 KO) down in the second. At that point, it was really just a matter of time, as the Mexican star was able to impose his will with a non-stop attack against the smaller Argentine challenger.

Barros was down again early in the third round, and though he got up and fought on, the assault continued from Berchelt. Barros went down a third time, but the referee seemed to be ruling that a shove or a slip, until Barros’ corner came into the ring to stop the fight.

The official time of the stoppage was 1:53 of round three. Barros argued with his corner’s decision, and while they may have jumped the gun considering it wasn’t a real knockdown, it really was only a matter of time at that point, anyway.

Berchelt will now likely move on to face mandatory challenger Mickey Roman (59-12, 46 KO) in a fight that could be a real slugfest, with Fight of the Year-type potential.