Even if Berto destroys Ortiz, there’s still a huge gulf between him and Mayweather and Pacquiao

By Eric Thomas: It really doesn’t matter now how badly WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (27-0, 21 KO’s) beats light welterweight challenger Victor Ortiz (28-2-2, 22 KO’s) on Saturday night, Berto will will be considered to be nowhere near as good as Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., the two fighters that Berto badly wants to fight. A win over yet another light welterweight opponent may not be nearly enough for Berto to justify that he deserves a shot against Mayweather or Pacquiao.

Berto just isn’t drawing the fans and that likely won’t change tomorrow night. If anything, the fans that do tune in to Saturday nights’ fight will likely be fans of Ortiz rather than fans of Berto. It would seem crazy for Pacquiao or Mayweather to waste time fighting Berto when he can’t draw fans. For a future Berto-Pacquiao or Berto-Mayweather fight to be worth it, Berto will need more time to beat legitimate welterweights and build more fans. He needs to take on Shane Mosley, Mike Jones, Kell Brook and Amir Khan before he can build up his name with fans.

Berto has wasted his last three years fighting non-popular fighters, guys that were no threat to him. It’s kept him as the champion but it’s also kept him from becoming popular. Berto hasn’t had anything close to a career defining fight. What he’s had is a whole bunch of mediocre opponents that has kept him winning.

Berto will likely beat Ortiz on Saturday night, because Ortiz doesn’t like to take any kind of punishment and will either quit or run when the heat gets to be too much. I don’t expect this to be an exciting fight because I see Ortiz running like he did in the Lamont Peterson after he starts tasting some of Berto’s power.

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