Miguel Berchelt wreaked devastation across his four-year reign as WBC junior lightweight world champion. Eight fights, seven brutal stoppages; the boogeyman of his division.
And then came Feb. 20, 2021.
The bully got bullied.
Oscar Valdez handed Berchelt a 10-round KO loss that night at the MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas, knocking him down twice before detonating a scintillating left hand that slept "El Alacrán" ("The Scorpion") with blunt ferocity.
Berchelt’s biggest takeaway from suffering his first loss in roughly seven years?
“What I learned from that fight is you don’t have to fight when you’re sick,” Berchelt told DAZN in Spanish through an interpreter on Thursday, while taking part in a photo shoot.
It’s not that Berchelt doesn’t want to give Valdez credit on an electric performance. The 30-year-old Mexican fighter just feels like he should have listened to those closest to him.
“For that fight, everyone including my family and my girlfriend, they were telling me not to take the fight at the moment because I had suffered from COVID-19 back in November,” he continued. “With all the training and all that, I felt great. The mindset was there, the heart was there, but for some reason my body didn’t respond at all.”
A year-plus removed from the bout, Berchelt has made changes. He has decided to test the waters in a move up to lightweight and is working under new trainer Jorge Capetillo.
His new journey begins Saturday night at the Resorts World Las Vegas, where he’ll face Jeremiah Nakathila.
“This is a very important fight for me at this point in my career because I feel like after the loss to Valdez and after connecting with Jorge Capetillo, the fire for me in my heart and hunger to become champion once again just started,” disclosed Berchelt (38-2, 34 KOs). “Basically, my whole career is on the line this Saturday.”
Nakathila (22-2, 18 KOs) rebounded from a unanimous decision loss to Shakur Stevenson last June by defeating Ndodana Ncube in his native Namibia in October. He, too, is making the jump up to 135 pounds and Berchelt, under Capetillo, feels like he has him scouted thoroughly.
“Nakathila is a very strong fighter,” Berchelt said. “He has a good right hand. We’re going to be smart about that and that’s what we worked for. We’re going to nullify his right hand, fight smarter and we’re going to win.”
Berchelt promises that the firepower that he demonstrated at junior lightweight will carry over at lightweight — just with more explosive results.
“You’re going to see the same Miguel Berchelt,” he vowed. “I just have to fight smarter.
“I’m going to be the same offensive machine that I was at 130 (pounds),” he touted, “but now with more power because I don’t have to sacrifice myself so much to make the weight.”