Andre Berto started out the first round by coming forward and stalking Upsher and pumping the jab. Berto was also looking to land his straight cross to the body after setting it up with a jab. Meanwhile, Upsher was back peddling for the most part, being relaxed and seemingly waiting to counter but not throwing many punches. This trend continued for the next couple rounds for Upsher. Berto however, continued to build on what he established the first round and started to mix in a few combinations to the head and body.
In round three Berto tagged Upsher with straight right hands down the pike that landed flush many times and was visibly putting hurt on Upsher. However, Upsher was able to weather the storm but his punch output didn’t get any more than it already was. In round six, Upsher got aggressive and let his hands go a little bit. But unfortunately for Upsher, he wasn’t able to continue with that pace and went back to fighting the same extremely relaxed style.
This trend continued throughout the rest of the fight with Upsher occasionally bursting with combinations, but for the most part it was Berto walking him down and working nicely with his jab while closing the distance and walking him down. Berto also did a good job mixing up his punches to both the body and head.
In all, it was not a disappointing performance for Berto because he won the fight and used his jab nicely. However, Many believed Berto would possibly end up knocking Upsher out since he was knocked out in the fourth round not too long ago against Eddie Gomez who was only (14-0) at the time. I believe in the near future Berto will most likely be used as an opponent for a young up and coming welterweight such as Keith Thurman in the future. However, only time will tell. Andre Berto improves to (29-3 22KO’s) while Upsher drops to (24-4 6KO’s).
