Al Bernstein's Blog January 14, 2009 A Champion Is Not Always a Star As the first quarter of 2009 unfolds many of the boxing’s better known stars will be in action, like Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Kelly Pavlik and Antonio Tarver. Boxing, however, is one of those sports in which “internal” stars are not always universally known. There are, in fact, a number of world champions who are not known to the general sporting public, or even the general sporting media. This is not too surprising since, at last count, boxing has more weight divisions than Larry Brown has had coaching jobs. And, add to that the fact that most weight divisions have at least three champions and you have ample reasons for some title holders to rule in relative obscurity. Such a champion is Andre Berto, who defends his title this weekend. The 25 year old Berto was a decorated amateur who won U.S. titles and many international competitions, is 23-0 as a pro and will be making his second title defense on an HBO televised match on Saturday night. Still, I suspect many of you reading this are being introduced to Berto for the first time. You can get a better introduction watching him on Saturday night, when he does something most boxing champions don’t like to do. He is putting his title on the line against Luis Collazo who is a talented fighter who also happens to be a lefty. Collazo lost close decisions to the aforementioned Shane Mosley and another of boxing’s crossover stars,. Ricky Hatton. This already displays one of Berto’s attributes—he is willing to fight in good matches, something the sport needs these days. Among the other attributes is a tremendous work rate in the ring that is the foundation of an exciting style. He is not yet a boxing superstar, but he could be, and now is the time when we will find out whether he can develop into just that. Random thoughts ... When The Arizona Cardinals and Philadelphia Eagles square off in their improbable NFC title game match-up I contend that the game will feature two future hall of fame quarterbacks. Both Kurt Warner and Donovan McNabb have taken some criticism, but I think on merit they both deserve spots in Canton Ohio….The best quote so far of 2009 came from Tina Fey after winning more awards for her show 30 Rock at the Golden Globes. She said, “I know how lucky I am. If you start feeling too good about yourself, you can look at this thing they have called the Internet and find a lot of people who don’t like you.” (This blog is written exclusively for USSportspages.com readers. To see more of Al’s coverage of boxing go to the Al Bernstein Boxing Channel at ibnspoprts.com) <--- Back to Al Bernstein page