The first fight between Miguel Berchelt and Francisco Vargas was an action-packed brawl that saw nearly 2,000 punches being thrown in 11 rounds. Berchelt made sure Vargas didn't get much of a chance to stay in the ring as long as he did in their rematch.
After six rounds that saw him get battered and bruised by the stronger, faster, younger Berchelt, Vargas did not come out of the corner to start the seventh round in their title rematch. Berchelt scored his fourth consecutive stoppage win in a world title fight, retaining his WBC super featherweight world title in the main event of an ESPN-televised card from Tucson, Arizona.
Berchelt came out firing on all cylinders from the start, attacking Vargas all over in the first round. Berchelt hit a couple of punches below the belt, which had the referee give two separate warnings to the champion. Afterwards, most of Berchelt's offense came from devastating hooks and uppercuts to Vargas' head and the challenger was quickly getting multiple cuts across his face.
Vargas tried to keep up with Berchelt's otherworldly pace in the fight, but failed to do so. After three rounds, Berchelt had thrown 333 punches and was not slowing down as Vargas was not able to hurt the champion even once. Once the sixth round ended, Vargas' corner did not let him walk out to start the seventh round, giving Berchelt the victory.
The two fighters fought back in 2017 when Vargas entered the fight as the champion. Berchelt and Vargas had a wild back-and-forth fight but it was Berchelt who stopped his opponent standing in the 11th round to become the new WBC world champion.
After the fight, Berchelt declared his intent to unify the 130-pound division, starting with the winner of the WBO title fight between Masayuki Ito and Jamel Herring taking place on May 25.
"I want to prove that I?m the best 130-pounder in the world. In [two weeks], it will be Jamel Herring taking on Ito. I want the winner of that fight because I don?t want to leave any doubt as to who the best super featherweight in the world is," Berchelt said.
Berchelt has now made five successful world title defenses, picking up victories of the likes of Takashi Miura and Miguel Roman.