Miguel Berchelt takes tactical battle to beat Takashi Miura by unanimous decision
Miiguel Berchelt watched the prior wars for the World Boxing Council super-featherweight belt, and made note of the tolls they exacted.

The result of that study came Saturday night when Berchelt (32-1) roughed up Japan’s Takashi Miura by unanimous decision at the Forum, as judges awarded him scores of 116-111, 119-108, 120-109.

Miura, the former WBC champion who surrendered his belt to Francisco Vargas in the 2015 fight of the year, showed up as a reduced version of that fighter.

The 33-year-old swung his power punches in a desperate pursuit of a knockout and Berchelt, 25, spent the night avoiding the bombs while retaliating with clean blows to the head and body in his first title defense after stopping Vargas by 11th-round technical knockout in January.

“He’s fighting guys who’ve been battle-tested, battle-worn,” Berchelt promoter Eric Gomez said. “Miura’s dangerous, but, at this level, counting on one big punch to win it, that’s hard. Miguel fought a smart fight."

According to CompuBox, Berchelt outlanded Miura, 245-134, by wisely popping Miura with counter-punches and effective combinations.

“I knew this fight was going to be won with intelligence,” Berchelt said.

The tactical battle was a sharp switch from the prior brawls for the belt dating to Miura-Vargas, which was followed by Vargas’ 2016 fight-of-the-year draw against Mexican countryman Orlando Salido.