Miguel Berchelt to defend WBC title against Jason Sosa, November 2

Per an ESPN report, WBC 130lb titleholder Miguel Berchelt (36-1, 32 KOs) has agreed to defend his strap against contender Jason Sosa (23-3-4, 16 KOs) in the main event of a planned November 2nd card in Carson, California. Top Rank’s Carl Moretti confirmed that the bout has been agreed to in principle, though they’re still finishing up the paperwork.

“Stylistically, I think it’s a can’t-miss fight,” Moretti said. “Jason looked really good in his last fight in Philadelphia, and Berchelt always looks good. Combined that with the fight being at Dignity Health Sports Park, which has a great tradition of hosting great fights, and I think you have the making of a fight-of-the-year candidate.”

Top Rank is said to have initially wanted to place Berchelt on the undercard of Tyson Fury’s upcoming fight with Otto Wallin on September 14, but that Berchelt claimed he would not be able to make the required 130lb weight limit by that date, though he supposedly should be good to go for November.

Berchelt, 27, is most recently coming off a stoppage win over Francisco Vargas in May following consecutive knockout wins over Miguel Roman, Jonathan Barrios, and Maxwell Awuku dating back to the beginning of 2017.

Meanwhile Sosa, 31, has sort of proven good enough to get to this level but really struggle once he’s at it. He’s coming off three straight wins over lesser opposition since dropping a debatable majority decision to Yuriorkis Gamboa just several months after he got stopped by Vasiliy Lomachenko in early 2017.

Moretti says he believes the winner of Berchelt-Sosa will go on to either fight in a title unification match or against Oscar Valdez in the first quarter of 2020, though I’d have to imagine that Berchelt has a rematch clause in case he loses his belt here.