Berto: Brought Up Tough

Jerry Glick reporting: As he rose to the top of his division, all Andre Berto heard was how good he was. Now that he holds the WBC 147 pound belt all the doubters have climbed out of their little holes and began pointing fingers at the 25 year old lightning fast puncher from Winterhaven, Florida.

Berto is in a mix with some pretty heady company in that welterweight class; Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito, Joshua Clottey, Zab Judah, and others. The welterweights are hot. A lot of money can be made with all fights that can be put together with this amount of star power. Berto still has much to prove against such luminaries and his opponent, Juan Urango, is a good opponent to start the process with.

Berto is, in fact, facing someone from whom, I think, we can get the answer to the question of just how good is Berto.

Juan Urango, 21-1-1 (16), is not a welterweight. He defeated Herman Ngoudio for his IBF 140 pound belt in January of ’09. Instead of making his first defense he opted to challenge Berto for his belt one step higher in weight.

Berto will be making the third defense of his WBC Welterweight Crown against IBF Super-Welterweight Champion Juan Urango at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood, Florida, on Saturday, May 30th.
Urango, who was born in Colombia, SA, and now resides in Miami, FL, has decided to take his win and move up a weight class to see what he can do against bigger opposition. In reality it is not a terrible move. Urango is an emerging star as is Berto so fighting each other makes sense; dollars and cents, that is.

Berto is a student of boxing and he thinks he knows what to expect from Urango.

“Urango is a very strong fighter,” said Berto. “He brings the fight to you.”
But what should Urango expect from Berto?

“He should expect to see what he has seen on tapes and in certain fights of mine. He’ll see a lot of power. It will depend on how the fight goes. Everybody knows that I have skills and can box and that I can bang. It all depends on how he comes out as to how I set my plan.”

That match should put the fans in the seats.

You might say that Berto has been schooled in putting people’s behinds in seats, or maybe just putting behinds on the canvas. From an early age the Berto boys have learned about fighting from Papa Berto. Andre’ referred to him as “a man’s man.” He said that contact sports were part of the fiber that held them together as a family. Andre’ was the only one to box, but not the only fighter.

“That’s the thing that separated me from the rest of the family,” he explained. “It was normal for us to live tough. So when it came to the fight game it just came natural to us. You know we all did some form of full contact sport.”

His dad, Roberto, started his family in mixed martial arts as he competed in tournaments.

“He was into MMA before there was the UFC,” said Andre’. “He went to Japan and competed in the Pride Association.”

I did not hesitate to mention that I was sure that no one in their town ever screwed around with the Berto family. Andre’ agreed that that was very true. He laughed.

Berto, 24-0 (19), believes in himself. That feeling of self was brought with his father from his homeland of Haiti and he instilled that in Andre.

“My parents did the best that they could do to provide for us,” said Andre’. “They came over from Haiti and they lived that rough life. My father was always the ultimate man’s man. We had to live tough. We had to do hard, hard workouts. It was normal for us to live tough.”

“I believe that I am the best in the welterweight division because I am hungry, I have all the tools,” said Berto listing why he is better than the other 147 pounders today. “I’m the full package, I have speed, I have power, I give people what they want to see at the end of the day.” He reminded this reporter of his exciting fights with Collazo, and David Estrada, and Miguel Rodriguez.

“I love the welterweight division because of all the tough fighters in it,” said Berto. “I want to fight the best. That’s why I love the welterweights.”
Andre’ is very settled into his situation. He believes in his team. He is managed by the very capable Al Hayman, and trained by Tony Morgan. DiBella Entertainment headed up by Lou DiBella promotes the young champion.

Berto has both feet planted firmly on the ground. No crazy life style, just doing what he was brought up to do. His heroes are not the types who lead a young mind into trouble. He was not only inspired by his father, he also draws inspiration from the great Joe Louis who lived in difficult times and was forced to suck it up as he built himself into the heavyweight champion with not only great skills, but inner strength.

“My favorite fighter of all time is Joe Louis,” said Berto. “Because when he became champion there was so much hell going on back then, in our society at the time. He was our hero; he was our Obama at the time. It seemed like he was carrying his whole race on his back. He helped break a lot of barriers.

Listening to Berto talk about things that are beyond the scope of boxing was an example of how relevant the modern boxer is. Boxing attracts some of the best young people in the world who remain connected to history. Andre’ Berto is one of those new breed of fighters.

PUNCHLINES

Lou DiBella, Berto’s promoter, sees a bright future ahead for his fighter. Like an owner or jockey at the race track, he knows a thoroughbred when he sees one. He is as excited about Andre’ Berto as he is about the show on the 30th of May which has Berto defending his belt against IBF Jr Welterweight Champ Juan Urango.

“In Urango he’s fighting another world champion,” said DiBella. “And a guy who is basically the same size as he is who comes straight ahead and throws punches.”

Is Lou expecting a tough fight?

“Urango is a tough fight for anybody,” he answered.

With Pacquiao jumping weight classes, doing so has become fashionable in boxing as fighting into old age did when George Foreman took back the heavyweight title at 45 years old from Michael Mooror. Urango is moving up from 140 to 147, not an incredible move but there are other situations out there that can indeed raise eyebrows.

“Marquez and Mayweather is ridiculous,” opines DiBella. “It’s a featherweight fighting a welterweight.”

He sees Berto against Urango far differently than that.

“This is a big junior-welterweight fighting a small welterweight. Its two guys who are action fighters so I expect a very high quality action fight with a lot of fireworks. When you get past Urango there are a lot of guys we’d like to fight; Cotto, and we’d love to fight Mosley in the future. If he does what I think he will do and get past Urango, we will be looking for the biggest fight possible.”

Should not be too hard to find at 147.