Berto On Kell Brook “That’s something I’d definitely love to get”

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Andre BertoShortly after welterweight Andre Berto(30-3, 23 KO’s) dispatched Josesito Lopez in the 6th round of their interim WBA World title fight last weekend, he joined Behindthegloves.com and talked about some possible opponents for the future.

Four years ago Berto was the undefeated WBC World Welterweight champion when he signed to face Victor Ortiz. The resulting firefight saw both men hit the canvas twice, and it is a minor miracle it went the twelve round distance when you revisit it and see how much punishment each participant took.

Ortiz emerged with the hard-fought win but has since exhibited shaky form; losing to Floyd Mayweather via fourth round sucker-punch(protect yourself at all times) before getting his jaw broken by the very same Josesito that Berto has just beaten in what was a huge upset at the time. He then took eighteen months out and upon his return was stopped inside two rounds by the veteran Luis Collazo, a respected operator but not a renowned puncher. He managed to get a third round stoppage in December of last year over Manuel Perez for his first win since beating Berto back in 2011 but hasn’t yet returned to the explosive form that made him his name. So would Berto be open to a rematch with Ortiz?

“Yeah if it makes sense. This kid here[Josesito] stopped Ortiz, but Ortiz gave me my first loss, so I really came into this fight with a lot of passion and I really tried to prove a point, and I think I did that.”

In the win over Josesito, he proved his toughness and his power were still intact but little else. He was defensively deficient and noticeably inactive, but he still managed to drop Josesito with two right hands to force the referee to halt the contest. It will look like a better win on paper than it did on the night.

He will need more than that to beat the IBF champion Kell Brook(33-0, 22KO’s) anyway, which was the next name floated out there for Berto to consider.

“Kell Brook, I don’t know his situation, I heard he got stabbed or something like that. I don’t know about that match-up, but that’s something I’d definitely love to get.”

Brook suffered a thigh-length machete wound almost immediately after winning the belt last August when holidaying in Lanzarote, the details of which are hard to come by. He has been back in the gym for a while now and is set to make a mandatory defence against JoJo Dan(34-2, 18KO’s) in Sheffield, UK on March 28th. That pretty much puts him out of the picture as far as Berto goes and seeing as the other two belt holders in the division -Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao- are facing one and other on May 2nd, Berto’s next outing is unlikely to be for any kind of belt but his own.