Miguel Berchelt vs Diego Ruiz set for October 14 DAZN main event

Miguel Berchelt will face Diego Ruiz in an Oct. 14 main event on DAZN, the headline bout of a “Golden Boy Fight Night” event, co-promoted with Zanfer Boxing, live from Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

The 31-year-old Berchelt hasn’t won a meaningful fight since 2019, and has looked dreadful in his last two outings.

“El Alacran” Berchelt (38-3, 34 KO) struggled badly to make weight and was then dominated and knocked out by Oscar Valdez in Feb. 2021, before being routed and stopped by Jeremia Nakathila in Mar. 2022, his last time in the ring.

Berchelt is a former 130 lb titlist now campaigning at lightweight — he was at lightweight for the Nakathila bout — and the hope will be, since he isn’t old in years, that perhaps some time off will have freshened him up.

The 29-year-old Ruiz (24-7-1, 12 KO) fights out of Argentina, and has gone 1-4-1 in his last six. More importantly, he is also a featherweight at best, probably more suited for 118 and 122, and we’re talking about a 135 lb fight here.

Ruiz has been seen repeatedly on UK fight cards in the last couple of years, and did retire Gamal Yafai in February of this year, though that probably said more about Yafai than Ruiz.

One worry you may come to here, as I did, is that Golden Boy, running out of opponents for contender William Zepeda, may be hoping to set Berchelt up with a win to maneuver him into a stay-busy fight for Zepeda early next year.

The real best fight of the show is the chief support between Angel Ayala (16-0, 7 KO) and Felix Alvarado (39-3, 34 KO) in an IBF flyweight eliminator.

This is a big chance for the 23-year-old Ayala to show he’s a top-level contender against the 34-year-old Alvarado, a former 108 lb titleholder who still looked pretty dangerous in his late 2022 loss to Sunny Edwards in an IBF flyweight title bout.

The “Golden Boy Fight Night” cards have usually been B-level events (sometimes that’s generous) on Thursdays, but since boxing is a weekend sport and there’s just no fixing that in fans’ minds anymore, they appear to be moving more toward Saturday dates and just the acceptance that they’ll often be the second- or third-biggest show of the evening.

In this case, it will be against shows on ESPN and Showtime; and in short, this is not meant to be a major marquee event. It is just a contractual obligation being filled with a card.

Also on the undercard: Aaron Silva (13-0, 10 KO) will be back in a 10-round super middleweight fight, and Irvin Turrubiartes (25-0-1, 15 KO) faces Sergio Sanchez (20-1, 12 KO) in a 10-round featherweight bout.