Khan: I heard it’s Berto [for Mayweather fight]. Good luck to him

By Boxing News - 07/15/2015 - Comments

berto91By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan appeared to be admitting defeat in a tweet last night in saying that he’s heard through the grapevine that Floyd Mayweather Jr. will be facing Andre Berto on September 12th in his next fight.

Khan trains under the same trainer as Berto in Hayward, California, and he says he wishes Berto a lot of luck. It’s still not official, but given that they both have Virgil Hunter as their trainer, it’s likely that Berto told Hunter about him getting the fight, and he in turn may have told Khan. That’s the only way I can see Khan finding out about this.

Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) is fine pick by Mayweather. He’s turned his career around since his losses to Robert Guerrero, Jesus Soto Karass and Victor Ortiz, and he’s fighting a lot better than he was. Berto’s conditioning has improved, and he’s abandoned the shoulder roll he was tinkering with during the Guerrero fight.

Mayweather can’t go wrong by selecting Berto, because this is a guy who is well-known to the casual boxing fans in the United States. It’s not as if Mayweather would have to spend weeks building the guy up like he would if he were to face Khan, Keith Thurman or Shawn Porter. Those guys aren’t well-known among the casual fans in America because they haven’t been around on television for long enough, and none of them have been involved in a pay-per-view fight in which they were in the main event.

A lot of the casual boxing fans don’t find out about fighters until they’ve been in a pay-per-view bout in which they were either the headlining act, or the co-feature. Berto has the popularity walking in the door. The casual boxing fans that remember Berto might not be aware that he was beaten by Ortiz, Guerrero and Soto Karass, which is a good thing.

Berto has looked great as of recently with his wins over Steve Upsher Chambers and Josesito Lopez. Hunter appears to have turned Berto’s career around by having him stay in the center of the ring, and using his fast combinations like he did earlier in his career. Berto is a much better fighter when he’s at center ring throwing four-punch combinations. He’s still blinding fast and he’s lost none of his punching power.

When Berto is injury free, fighting in the center of the ring, and not leaning against the ropes, he’s hard to beat. The hand speed that Berto has will greatly compliment the speed that Mayweather possesses.

I think Berto could put in a much more interesting fight than we saw from Manny Pacquiao last May in his 12 round decision loss to Mayweather. Pacquiao looked like he only put out a token effort in trying to win the fight after he got nailed by some right hands from Mayweather in the first two rounds. At least with Berto, you know he’s going to make it exciting from start to finish, and he’s always willing to go out on his shield. That’s what I like about Berto. He doesn’t play it safe. If he’s going to lose, he’s going to lose by hitting the canvas rather than running all over creation and holding all night long.



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