Brandon Berry knows one thing for sure about his unanimous eight-round decision victory over Agustin Cicero on Saturday. The fight was exactly what he needed at this stage of his professional boxing career.

“I feel like I grew from this. It was nice to go eight rounds,” said Berry, a West Forks native. “(Cicero) was a real tough opponent. I know his record wasn’t too great (16-17-3), but you can overlook those types of guys. I knew going into it he was a durable guy.”

The win was the 20th of Berry’s professional career, and his seventh straight. Berry’s professional record now stands at 20-5-2. Cicero won the first round of the welterweight fight, held at Southpaw Boxing and Fitness in Windham, New Hampshire. Over the next seven rounds, Berry kept Cicero at bay with his jab. All three judges scored the bout 79-72 in Berry’s favor.

“The jab was working. I was able to keep him at a certain distance with that. I wasn’t hurting him with it, but it was doing what it’s supposed to do,” Berry said.

Leading into Saturday’s fight against Cicero, Berry had won five of his last six fights via technical knockout. Only a win over Carlos Galindo in September 2019 went the distance, a six-round unanimous decision.

“It was nice to get in there with a guy who was going to last eight rounds,” Berry said of Cicero. “You don’t learn a lot from those (easier) types of fights. This type of fight will help me.”

Berry will not wait long to go for win 21. He’s scheduled to fight Gael Ibarra (5-2) at the SportsZone in Derry, New Hampshire on April 17. An inexperienced pro, Ibarra is 5-2. After losing his first two pro fights, Ibarra has won five in a row, the last four by TKO. Berry, 33, said Ibarra will be a tough opponent, and that’s what he needs at this point in his career.

“At this stage, I can’t keep being careful,” Berry said.

For the foreseeable future, Berry and other Maine boxers will box out of state. Both Berry and Justin Rolfe, a Fairfield-based professional boxer who trains in Waterville with Mike Leary, said they are anxious to get to box and promote fights in Maine again. Both Berry and Rolfe had boxing shows planned for central Maine last spring, before the COVID-19 pandemic forced cancellations.

“Promoters are keeping us busy in New Hampshire. I can fight as much as I want to at this point,” Berry said.

“I have heard nothing of Maine yet or anybody running anything in Maine anytime soon,” added Rolfe, who is scheduled to fight Corey Morley in Derry, New Hampshire on April 17.

 

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