By Rafael Soto

On Saturday, June 23, Miguel 'Alacran' Berchelt will fulfill another dream in boxing - by defending a world championship in Merida, Yucatan - a city that supported him, and gave him opportunities and development throughout his professional career.

Berchelt (33-1-0, 29 KO's) will make the third defense of his WBC super featherweight world championship, when he will face experienced Argentine fighter Jonathan Victor Barros (41-5-1, 22 KO's) at the Poliforum Zamná in Merida, Yucatan.

The event will be staged by Fernando Beltran of Zanfer and Mario Abraham of Max Boxing. And Azteca 7 will televise in Mexico and ESPN+ in the United States.

In February he successfully defended his belt against Maxwell Akuku in Cancun, where he was born, and will now defend the belt in Merida.

"I feel blessed, after so many years of dedication, discipline, effort and respect for me and for boxing, now I see everything that life brings back to me, fulfilling the dreams of a child, and all of this forces me to give more," Berchelt said.

Berchelt is more than motivated by his next commitment, and has a special affection for the people of Merida.

"I'm about to fulfill another dream that I visualized for many days and many hours, that I saw myself as a world champion and fighting in my second home in my beloved Mérida, this is where I developed my career, this is where Mario Abraham believed in me, gave me his support and led my career. The people of Merida are humble, honest, hard-working and with a historic boxing tradition," Berchelt said.

Regarding his next opponent, Berchelt is not going to take any steps back and he won't overlook the former world champion, who only suffered a single stoppage loss at the hands of Mikey Garcia several years ago.

"He was already a world champion and wants to take my belt - but that will not happen. I will arrive in Merida 200% prepared, I have made a camp with nine weeks of intense training in Hermosillo, trained by Alfredo Caballero, the weather is hot and that helped me. I do not have any problems with the weight, I had more than 100 rounds of sparring with Daniel Lugo, Jesús Quijada, Noé Robles and Pedro Campa - and they helped me a lot," Berchelt said.