Andre Berto-Near Greatness

[BoztheMadman]

Of all the welterweight hopefuls of the last 20 or so years, Andre Berto stands out as one of the guys that achieved quite a lot, but many believed he could’ve even achieved more. For a while, he looked close to unbeatable, but then one guy by the name of Victor Ortiz changed that perception forever. Berto’s career would never be the same again, even though he captured one more big belt and later avenged the loss to Ortiz. He holds distinction, along with Jean Pascal and Joachim Alcine, as one of only three Haitians to win a world title. 
 

Although Haitian by parentage, Berto was born in Winter Haven, Florida, on 7 September 1983. His father was a kickboxer who competed in UFC 10 and his brother and sister were also involved in martial arts, so it was natural that young Andre became a boxer. He actually started boxing in order to learn to defend himself from his classmates. He was trained by his own father, Dieuseul. He began competing as amateur and won a bronze at the 2003 World championships, as well as many other smaller titles, including two Golden Gloves. He also holds victories over Andre Dirrell and Timothy Bradley in the amateurs. However, at the 2004 Olympic qualifying, he was disqualified in the opening round for throwing his opponent to the canvas and so, his dreams of winning an Olympic medal were shattered. However, he was then able to get Haitian citizenship and qualified as a member of their team, but still lost in the first round of competition to Xavier Noel of France.

He turned professional in December of 2004, fighting as a welterweight, standing just below 5’7 (169 cm) but equipped with a strong physique, very good punching power and speed. He won his first 15 fights easily, 13 by knockout, before he was stepped up in class in 2006 against Miguel Figueroa, on 17 December in Little Rock, Arkansas. He dominated Figueroa and made him quit on his stool after six rounds. This earned him the ESPN Prospect of the Year award. On 27 July 2007, he fought the tough and seasoned Cosme Rivera and was down for the first time in his career in round 6, but dominated the fight and inflicted a bad cut on Rivera in the next round, before winning by UD. After winning the NABF belt by stopping David Estrada by TKO11, on 9 February 2008 he faced Michel Trabant in his first defense and stopped him after Trabant retired in his corner after six rounds. 
 

On 21 June that year, he faced Miguel Rodriguez for the vacant WBC belt, which was vacated by Floyd Mayweather after he “retired”. Berto indeed looked like someone who could fill that void left by Mayweather, as he dropped Rodriguez twice to enforce a stoppage in round 7. After a tactical and rather uneventful first successful defense against Steve Forbes, Berto got his first true test in the second defense against former WBA champion Luis Collazo, who previously lost his belt in what was regarded a controversial decision to Ricky Hatton. Berto was hurt in the first round and had a point deducted for holding in the fourth, but came back in the second half to open a cut over Collazo’s left eye and take over, in the end winning by another controversial decision. That was 17 January ‘09 and on 30 May, he made his third defense against Colombian strongman Juan Urango, a former IBF junior welterweight champion. Berto outboxed and outpunched Urango convincingly to win by a lopsided decision. 
 

He then signed to fight the WBA champion Shane Mosley on 30 January 2010, but after the earthquake disaster on Haiti in mid-January, Berto pulled out of the fight in order to engage in humanitarian aid. When he was finally ready to fight again, it was against Carlos Quintana, who had briefly held the WBO title after upsetting Paul Williams. Fight was held on 10 April in Sunrise, Florida and Berto took control over the fight in the middle rounds, after being outboxed by the clever Quintana in some of the early rounds. In the eighth, he cornered the Puerto Rican and stopped him with a barrage of power punches. On 27 November came his fifth and final successful defense, as he took on Freddy Hernandez and dispatched him with a single big right in the first round, after 2 minutes and 7 seconds. And then came Ortiz.

Victor Ortiz had serious physical gifts like Berto, but his heart and toughness was called into question after his cut retirement loss against Marcos Maidana in 2009. He therefore had something to prove when he challenged Berto on 16 April 2011, at Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket. Ortiz opened strongly and sent Berto down with a combination against the ropes in the first round. Actually, Berto was down twice in that round, but the referee didn’t acknowledge the second knockdown. Berto recovered in round two and caught Ortiz with a perfect counter right that sent him down. In round 6, Berto again sent Ortiz down with a roundhouse right, but at the end of the round he was hit with a left by Ortiz which sent him down. The rest of the fight was a slugfest but Ortiz seemed to be more in control and he indeed won by the scores of 114-111, 114-112 and 115-111. This was Berto’s first loss after 27 straight wins and a big blow to his career. 
 

Fortunately, he got a title fight in his very next fight against IBF champion, the Slovenian Jan Zaveck, who came to Biloxi, Mississippi, to fight Berto on 3 September. It was a good fight but ended after only five rounds because Zaveck got so badly cut and swollen in one eye that he couldn’t see. Otherwise, despite Zaveck outlanding Berto, the latter’s punches were more telling. Only two months later, Berto vacated the title rather than fighting the mandatory Randall Bailey. A scheduled rematch vs Ortiz that was set for 23 June 2012 was canceled after Berto tested positive for a banned substance but it turned out it was due contamination and he got his license back. Josesito Lopez went on to fight Ortiz instead and unexpectedly stopped him. Berto instead landed another big fight against Robert Guerrero, a highly ranked p4p name. They fought on 24 November and Berto was down twice early but came back to win several rounds, however he got both of his eyes swollen shut in the end and lost for the second time on all scorecards. 
 

Even worse, in his comeback fight on 27 July 2013, he fought the tough veteran Jose Luis Soto Karass, who was considerably taller and rangier and, after knocking Soto Karass down in the eleventh round, he was himself down and stopped in the twelfth. It was his first stoppage loss, against a guy with 8 losses on his record. He came back in 2014 and beat Steve Upsher Chambers by UD10 and then on 13 March 2015 he stopped Josesito Lopez by TKO6 after putting him down twice. He then signed for his biggest fight ever against Floyd Mayweather Jr, a fight that one can safely say should’ve happened several years earlier. The WBA super and WBC titles were on the line. The fight happened on 12 September in Madison Square Garden and Berto just failed to be effective against an all time great defensive fighter, in the end losing by a lopsided decision. He earned 4 million and Mayweather 32. 
 

Next year on 20 April finally came the belated Ortiz rematch, at the StubHub outdoors arena in Carson, CA. Ortiz scored a knockdown in second round but Berto scored two in the fourth that ended the fight, thus avenging his first pro loss. After a year of inactivity, he came back to fight the big name Shawn Porter on 22 April 2017 at Barclays Center and it was clear he was far from his old self as he was down in round 2 and twice in the round 9 before being stopped by TKO. Next year on 4 August, he scored his last victory by SD against former WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander and his final (likely) fight came on 16 December 2023, when he lost the rematch to Robert Guerrero by UD10. His record stands now at 32 wins with 24 ko’s and 6 losses, 2 by ko. 
 

Andre Berto was for a while a strong candidate for the welterweight throne, but it turned out he didn’t have everything it took to be the man. First of all, he was a little too fond of getting into slugfests, which made him popular, but also shortened his prime. He also was not that hard to hit, being strong on the offensive front but rather weak on the offensive one. It is truly a pity he never fought people like Shane Mosley or Mayweather while in his peak years. He still had a good career and always came to fight, but that first Ortiz loss took something out of him and he was never quite the same.