In a world title defense that also coupled as a stay-busy fight, Miguel Berchelt easily stopped Jonathan Victor Barros in three rounds to retain his WBC junior lightweight title on Saturday at the Polyforum Zam Na in Berchelt’s hometown of Merida, Mexico.

Berchelt, who is rated No. 1 by THE RING at 130 pounds, was likely motivated by the trash talk which took place at Thursday’s press conference. After an opening round that saw little action, the Mexican power-puncher quickly began closing the distance.

Towards the end of the second round, Berchelt dropped Barros with a right-left combination. The challenger was able to finish the session, but the writing was on the wall.

With less than a minute remaining in Round 3, Berchelt dropped his man again with a sharp right hand. Barros rose and attempted to fight back, but referee Michael Griffin stopped the fight at 1:53 when the trainer entered the ring after Barros lost his balance while throwing a combination.

Barros (41-6-1, 22 knockouts) was upset with how the fight ended, but his corner did him a favor. This was only the second time that the gallant Argentinian has been stopped in a 48-fight career, the other occasion was in November 2016 when he was halted in eight by Mikey Garcia.

The hard-hitting Berchelt (34-1, 30 KOs) has now won his last 13 bouts with 12 of those victories coming inside the distance. He is now likely to defend against mandatory challenger Miguel ‘Mickey’ Roman, who also fought on Saturday in his hometown of Ciudad Juarez. Roman made quick work of Venezuela’s Michel Marcano, stopping him in two rounds.

Also on the Zanfer Promotions card, junior lightweight Ricardo Nunez (20-2, 18 KOs) of Panama knocked out Elvis Torres (19-1-2, 11 KOs) of Tijuana at 2:02 of the opening round.

Francisco A. Salazar can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing

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