Jeremiah Nakathila Scored Stunning Stoppage of Berchelt Saturday

Saturday night was supposed to be about former WBC Jr. Lightweight champ Miguel Berchelt getting back on the road to a title in a new weight division. However, Jeremiah Nakathila had other ideas.

Nakathila knocked out Berchelt in a stunning upset Saturday evening in the Top Rank Boxing/ESPN main event at Resorts World Las Vegas. The fight was stopped after six one-sided rounds, as Berchelt was knocked down in the third with a jab and well behind on the scorecards at the time of the stoppage, having lost every round,

UPSET IN VEGAS 😳

🇳🇦 @JNakathila connects and ends the fight in six! #BercheltNakathila pic.twitter.com/lhkO4L4jbZ

— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) March 27, 2022

As we wrote leading up to the bout Saturday, Berchelt (38-3, 34 KOs) had not fought since his February 2021 knockout loss to rising star Oscar Valdez, and Nakathila (23-2, 19 KOs) provided anything but a soft landing spot. The Namibian Nakathila had fought once since a lopsided loss to Shakur Stevenson, but his second American fight went far better than the first. He found a home for the right hand early and wobbled Berchelt on multiple occasions.

Berchelt showed signs of a comeback in the fifth, but Nakathila immediately took the play away in the sixth. Right hands and left hooks found their mark, and referee Russell Mora, on advice of the ringside physicians, would not permit Berchelt to come out for the seventh round.

“From the first round, my corner told me to take my time. I know what I have. I knew it would be difficult for him to reach the 10th round. It wasn’t so easy, but I made it look easy,” Nakathilia said to ESPN post fight.

“He didn’t really bother me, the way he swung. I just got back to my game plan, and I capitalized. Luckily, {he couldn’t continue}. I was going to knock him out or put him to sleep in a bad way. Luckily, he saw it coming and decided he couldn’t come back.” 

The win puts Nakathila back into the conversations for bigger bouts at 135 lb. and leaves the veteran Mexican warrior Berchelt now at a crossroads. Can he become great again? Or, have the two brutal KO losses to Valdez and now, Nakathila taken too much out of him? Time will tell on that.

In the Top Rank co-feature, Featherweight Mexican Eduardo Baez (21-2-2, 7 KOs) scored a tight majority decision win over countryman Jose Enrique Vivas (21-2, 11 KOs) winning 96-94 and 98-92 on two of the cards and third was 95-95.