After weeks of trying to find someone to fight for his WBC super featherweight title, Miguel Berchelt had a quick night in beating last-minute opponent Maxwell Awuku.
It took Berchelt less than 10 minutes to stop Awuku, a relatively unknown fighter from Ghana, and retain his WBC title. Berchelt dominated Awuku throughout the short fight, dropping Awuku twice, and the referee stopped the fight with four seconds remaining in the third round. The fight took place in Cancun, Mexico, where Berchelt had been scheduled to fight for weeks, despite the numerous changes to Berchelt's opponent.
The WBC super featherweight title has been under a whirlwind of issues in regards to Berchelt trying to find an opponent. Berchelt was originally supposed to defend his title against Cristian Mijares, but that fight fell through. OPBF super featherweight champion Carlo Magali was then put in as Berchelt's opponent, but the GAB announced that it has forced Magali out of the bout, refusing to allow him to return to the ring so soon after his January 13 win over Masatoshi Kotani. It was Awuku who answered the call to fight Berchelt with less than two weeks before the fight.
As for what is next for Berchelt, the 26-year-old champion will have to make a mandatory defense but there is no challenger as of yet. The WBC said it is in the process of voting on a request to appoint Miguel Roman as the mandatory challenger after Roman defeated Orlando Salido on December 9.
Roman vs. Salido was supposed to be a WBC interim super featherweight title fight until the WBC unsanctioned the title fight after HBO made a last-minute decision to shorten the fight, which headlined the December 9,2017 HBO card, from 12 rounds to 10.
