By Cliff Rold
With a possible mandatory title shot looming, 24-year old interim WBO 130 lb. titlist Miguel Berchelt (30-1, 27 KO), 129 ½, of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, dished out a one-sided beating to 31-year old two-time former featherweight title challenger Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo (61-3, 41 KO) of Chonburi, Thailand, on Saturday night at the Polideportivo Soraya Jimenez in Los Reyes La Paz, México. Berchelt scored two knockdowns in the fourth round for a knockout win. Berchelt was taken from the arena on the stretcher in a troubling scene.
The referee was Roberto Ramirez Jr.
Through most of the first three rounds, Berchelt was in an offensive groove that left little room for Piriyapinyo to work. The Thai battler fired back but couldn’t sustain offense as he dealt with a stream of leather.
The stream continued in the fourth and Piriyapinyo could do nothing but absorb the beating. A flush left and right to the head dropped Piriyapinyo for the first time. A look of exhaustion on his face, he rose at seven and continued on. Berchelt immediately trapped him along the ropes and landed a nasty left to the body to drop him for the second time. There would be no attempt to beat the count, Piriyapinyo folding onto all fours as Ramirez finished the count at ten at 2:59 of round four.
As Berchelt celebrated, Piriyapinyo went to his back and was surrounded by ring officials, corner men, and medical personnel. He would ultimately be taken from the ring, and arena, on a stretcher.
Berchelt scores his ninth straight stoppage after suffering a shocking first round loss in March 2014. He is currently the mandatory for WBO 130 lb. titlist Vasyl Lomachenko.
In the televised opener, 30-year old women’s WBA Minimumweight champion Anabel Ortiz (22-3, 4 KO), 108, of Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico, won a non-title unanimous decision over 27-year old Kareli Lopez (9-7-3, 2 KO). There were no knockdowns in the bout as Ortiz got in eight rounds of work with some crowd-pleasing resistance. Final scores came in at 77-75 and 78-74 twice. The referee was Helacio Perez.
The card was televised in the US on BeIn Espanol, promoted by Zanfer.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene and a member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
