Will We See Berto-Collazo 2?

Fans who took in the January 17 Andre Berto-Luis Collazo scrap on HBO were not disappointed, and everyone basically agrees that a rematch would make sense.

TSS reached out to Berto to see if a sequel would be forthcoming, and asked him to grade himself on his outing.

“I give myself a ‘C’,” said the 25-year-old Floridian with a 24-0 record. “I didn’t perform like I normally do. I had some issues pop up a few days before the fight so I wasn’t myself.”

TSS prodded Berto, and pleaded with him to define “issues.” What, Beyonce kidnapped you and locked you in a hotel room with her for three days and looong nights? What?

“I had the flu,” he said after a hesitation. “And I don’t want to come off like it’s an excuse. But in the fight, I showed I can dig down.”

Berto said he wasn’t worried as the cards were being tabulated that Collazo had taken his WBC strap. “Nah, I thought I had it,” he said.

The New Yorker Collazo has been out and about in the last week or so, announcing that he thinks he won the fight, and that the decision was severely off. Berto was surprised by that stance: “I was kind of disappointed, because I gave him a lot of props after the fight. But then he went back to New York, and people gassed him  up.”

So, will we see a rematch?

“My pride says rematch,” Berto said. “I’d like to shut him and the critics up. If I went in healthy most likely I’d stop him. But business-wise, we may move forward onto bigger and better things.”

Berto said HBO has set aside a date in May for him.

As for that ‘C’ grade, Berto acknowledges he made the fight much harder than it needed to be. “If I stayed outside, all day I would have been fine. But I was sluggish, mentally as well as physically. Next time, I’m going to be smarter.”

Berto was mightily impressed with Shane Mosley’s dissection of the real life terminator, Antonio “The (Alleged) Master of Plaster” Margarito. “I had told everyone that Mosley would do it.,” Berto said. “I knew Margarito was a pressure fighter but he was extremely slow. I knew Shane had the quickness to smother him.”

Berto would love to scrap with Mosley, he said. “Even before this fight, I wanted to fight Shane,” he said. “He’s so good, and I’ve always been a fan. I’d love to have the opportunity. It’s up to him. He probably wants to go a different route. Either Cotto, or Mayweather, or Pacquiao or Hatton.”

But, just to be sure, Berto said he would be giving Mosley a call, to congratulate him, and maybe plant the seed for a welterweight title consolidation match. And Berto will be sure to chow down on copious Cold-Eze before that one…