In another head scratching move by one of the sanctioning bodies, the IBF stripped Andre Berto of his welterweight title last November because he chose not to defend it against the organization?s mandatory challenger at the time Randall Bailey. Instead, he chose to accept a rematch with Victor Ortiz scheduled for Feb. 11.
Berto suffered the first loss of his career to Ortiz last April, ending his reign as the WBC champion, in what many consider to be the fight of the year for 2011. Berto quickly rebounded in his next fight by beating Jan Zaveck by fifth round TKO to win the IBF Welterweight Title.
The Bailey fight would have been a tough sell because none of the major networks were interested in televising it. The Ortiz fight is much more lucrative and even in spite of his loss to Mayweather, he is still widely regarded as the third best welterweight in the world. This fight looks to be a much tougher challenge for Berto. With all due respect to Bailey you be hard pressed to find him on many people?s top ten list of welterweights.
Why wouldn?t the IBF allow the more competitive fight take place that makes more sense? The two top fighters in the division Floyd Mayweather and Many Pacquiao, already hold major world titles.(Mayweather holds the WBC Title and Pacquaio holds the WBO Title) The next best logical thing would be to have the third and fourth best fighters in the division fight each other for one of the remaining titles. The IBF had a great opportunity here not only to collect a larger sanctioning fee but also to sanction a much better fight as well as gain a creditable champion to represent their organization.
