Can Berto or Lopez become contenders again at 147?

While Kovalev-Pascal is the biggest fight of the weekend, former welterweight champion Andre Berto and contender Josesito Lopez meet tonight in a welterweight clash that both fighters really need to win

Welterweight is always a deep division and it's pretty stacked at the moment. Pacquiao and Mayweather obviously lead the pack but you have a lot of strong skilled fighters at 147 (and 140) who I'm sure we'd all love to see them fight each other such as Khan, Thurman, Bradley ,Brook, Maidana, Guerrero, JMM, Porter, Rios, Garcia etc

My question first is who wins this fight, and whoever wins can they get back into the frame at 147 as they do have their strengths like Berto with his speed and power and Lopez with his grit and heart

CANNOT WAIT, for this, Lopez is sort of one of my favourite fighters, not the most talented but game as they come. Maybe this is bias but I actually reckon he upsets the apple cart here and takes Berto down. Berto just seems to almost always be involved in FOTY Contenders when he comes up against someone good, Guerrero, Ortiz, Soto Karass, Collazzo; Lopez seems to be in FOTY contenders when he comes up against someone good, Maidana and Ortiz were both crackers.

Come on Josesito!!

Sorry, my bad didn't realise someone had already made a thread, but yeah should be quality, don't think either of these guys can trouble the Thurmans and Brooks of this world but think that they are a handy edition to the division as they're rarely boring.

No, not at the highest level. Berto tends to lose every dog fight he gets in: Guerrero ,Karras, Ortiz. Lopez isn't that good. Be a fun fight tonight tho! Favour Berto, but only just

Think Berto has got it tbf, but no way is it going to be one sided

Lopez has done what he can imo, hes tough and loves to fight, but he has taken a lot of punishment recently. Berto is the better fighter and should be able to pick lopez off with his speed

That said if lopez can take bertos best and bring the fire, berto can go into a shell when under pressure and he himself has been known to go down

I hope Berto uses his amazing and innovative shoulder roll defense. He made it look so natural.

I actually fancy Lopez's jab to be a major weapon, he has a big reach advantage over Berto and i reckon that could do something, when he's used it to good effect I think he's done really well and i had him edging out Ortiz at the time of the stoppage, although I don't think most others did. Most certainly not the judges who had Ortiz a mile ahead!!!

Really want 'Riverside Rocky' to bag the upset. Berto can't help but get into wars despite having an average chin. If Josesito can land a big one on Berto's chin we'll see what Berto has left in the tank.

Did anybody think that stoppage was anything but totally disgraceful??

Not saying it cos it cost me £40 it was wayyy too soon. I had Lopez winning the first 5 also. He was definitely hurt but there was no way he should have at least given him a count on the second one, we've seen Lopez come back plenty of times after being hurt and fight back hard.

I have far more sympathy for refs getting wrong when the guy's taking a pummeling on their feet, but when its a KD they have the chance to take ten seconds to judge the situation. Two knockdowns, the second of which he didn't even go flat out; just went down on his gloves, and that's the fight over after he fought the perfect fight for five rounds??

Berto's the name.