Andre Berto is a Haitian American professional boxer in the Welterweight division. He was born on September 7, 1983 in Miami, Florida, United States. He represented Haiti during the 2004 Summer Olympics. He was raised as one of seven children, and was introduced to boxing by his father who was competing professionally in mixed martial arts. His brother, Edson, is also a professional mixed martial artist. In the end, boxing became a way for Berto to stay out of trouble.
As an amateur boxer, Berto won a bronze medal during the 2003 World Amateur Championships. He also became a National Golden Gloves champion twice. Aside from that, he was also a National PAL champion (twice), a U.S. Amateur Championship medalist (three times), and garnered a total of 22 state titles in Florida.
Born | 7 Sep 1983 |
Nationality | United States |
Berto turned pro in 2004, and has then remained undefeated. One of his memorable fights was in December 12, 2006 against Miguel Figueroa. He put up a destructive fight against Figueroa until finally the referee had to stop the fight at the sixth round. He was then duly named as the 2006 Prospect of the Year by ESPN.com. He also fought Norberto Bravo from the “The Contender”. He defeated Bravo by knocking him down three times, which in turn triggered the three knockdown rule. Since then, he has enjoyed a series of wins against various professional boxers.
It was in June 21, 2008 that Berto captured the vacant WBC welterweight title when he defeated Miguel Rodriguez via knockout in the seventh round. Berto had knocked down Rodriguez twice in the seventh round before the referee stopped the fight with 47 left into the round.
Throughout his professional career, Berto has a total of 27 fights, all of which were victorious. Twenty-one of these bouts have ended via knockout, and he has not yet been defeated.
Berto was set to defend his title against Shane Mosley in January 2010, but the bout did not push through due to the family crisis Berto had after his family loss during the Haiti earthquake.