Miguel Berchelt

On 23 January 2018 a deal was finalized for Berchelt to defend his WBC title against 31 year old Philippine boxer Carlo Magali (29-9-3, 12 KOs) on 10 February in Cancún, Mexico.

Miguel Ángel Berchelt Cervera (born 17 November 1991) is a Mexican professional boxer who held the WBC super featherweight title from 2017 to 2021.

Berchelt tried out at the age of 16 for the football club he supported as a child, Pumas UNAM.

He turned to boxing after being rejected.

During his amateur career, he was a three-time Mexican National Boxing Champion in the Elite category.

Berchelt never represented his country internationally as Óscar Valdez was the highest-ranked boxer in the featherweight division at the time.

The two never faced each other as amateurs.

Berchelt turned pro at the age of 18, moving from his native Cancún to Mérida.

He was considered the boxer of the year in 2011 by the World Boxing Council.

He amassed a 15-0 record with 13 knockouts before getting his first chance to compete for a belt in September 2012.

Berchelt defeated Berman Sánchez for the WBC Youth Intercontinental super featherweight by technical knockout after 2 rounds.

Berchelt made his US debut in March 2013 beating Claudio Ríos by TKO in the first round in the undercard of Ríos-Alvarado II at the Mandalay Bay.

Berchelt's career suffered a surprising setback when he was knocked out in just one round by Luis Eduardo Florez.

Berchelt struggled getting inside the range of his taller opponent.

He was knocked down by a left hook and struggled to beat the count before the referee waved the fight off.

However, Berchelt would get his career back on track by rattling off seven consecutive wins by way of knockout and winning the NABO super featherweight title.

Berchelt first fought for a world title by facing George Jupp for the vacant interim WBO super featherweight.

Berchelt won the title, defeating Jupp with a round 6 TKO in Mérida, his adopted hometown.

Jupp was outmatched, having taken the fight at seven days' notice.

Berchelt defended his title against Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo before vacating it to challenge WBC champion Francisco Vargas.

Miura lost his title to Vargas in The Ring's 2015 Fight of the year.

Miura had defeated Miguel Román in the Vargas vs. Berchelt undercard to become the WBC's mandatory challenger.

Berchelt knocked down Miura in the first round and proceeded to out-point the former champion en route to a comfortable win by unanimous decision (120-109, 119-108, 116-111).

This fight marked only the third time that a Berchelt bout went to the scorecards.

Miura announced his retirement 2 weeks after this bout.

On 2 December 2016 it was announced that Berchelt and Vargas would meet on 29 January 2017 at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California for the Vargas' WBC super featherweight title.

Vargas and Berchelt traded punches in the early rounds, with cuts from Vargas' previous fights with Takashi Miura and Orlando Salido re-opening.

On the latter rounds, Vargas started to slowly fade and Berchelt started to dominate the defending champion.

The referee stopped the fight with 2:19 minutes elapsed in the round 11.

According to CompuBox Stats, Vargas landed 330 of 1032 punches thrown (32%) and Berchelt landed 430 of his 947 thrown (45%).

In the post fight interview, Berchelt said, "I wanted to fight the best of the best, and this fight happened because of that. Francisco is a great champion, he has fought the best and has been in two Fight of the Year contests. I knew what I was getting into I left my heart and soul on the mat. I am young and hungry. I want to thank Vargas for this incredible opportunity."

Vargas stated he lost the fight due to cuts and would eventually want a rematch.

The fight averaged 497,000 viewers and peaked at 561,000 viewers.

Berchelt's first defense came on 15 July at The Forum in Inglewood, California against former WBC super featherweight champion Takashi Miura.

In October 2017, it was announced that Berchelt would close out the year by defending his title against Orlando Salido.

On 14 October, Sean Gibbons, Salido's manager, told the LA Times that the fight had been finalized to take place on 9 December, meaning it would fall on the same day as Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux.

On 23 October, sources indicated that Berchelt was still having issues with his right hand and would not be able to fight.

Berchelt was informed by the WBC that he would be allowed a voluntary defence before fighting the winner of Salido vs. Roman.

He debuted on his 19th birthday, defeating Armin Chan by way of technical knockout in the 2nd round.

Berchelt lived in a single room above a gym with six other boxers during this time.