(Photo credit: Idris Erba/Mayweather Promotions) By Chris Williams: You would think that with Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) being given a huge career high payday fight against unbeaten WBA/WBC 147lb champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) that he would be grateful and extremely thankful to Mayweather for bestowing his gift of a payday and perhaps a career lifesaver for him, but instead Berto is showing anything kindness in return for the honor.
Berto is now calling Mayweather a boring fighter, and seeing himself as the opposite of Mayweather. That’s obviously hard to stomach when you realize how many poor performances Berto has had in his last six fights.
If Berto had fought the guys that Mayweather has fought in the last three years of his career, I don’t think we’d be talking about a Mayweather-Berto fight taking place on September 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. I don’t think Berto would have been able to beat the likes of Miguel Cotto, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Robert Guerrero, Manny Pacquiao and Marcos Maidana.
We already saw what happened to Berto when he fought Guerrero in the past. It was arguably the worst defeat of Berto’s career. He tried to use the Mayweather should roll defense without knowing how to use it, and Guerrero took advantage of it by giving Berto a real bad beating. Without Mayweather giving Berto this big money shot, he’d likely have finished his career losing to C-level fighters.
“Everyone’s blaming me for this, but I just happened to be the next guy in line,” Berto said via reviewjournal. “A lot of people don’t get it. They’re mad at me? I’m not the one who’s the boring fighter. I’m not the one who fought (Marcos) Maidana. I didn’t fight (Manny) Pacquiao.”
Mayweather wasn’t going to take this hand-biting remark without making a comment on it. Mayweather said “He’s fighting a boring fighter, but he’s getting his biggest purse. I can guarantee you this fight’s not going to be boring. If there’s not a knockout, there’s going to be a lot of knockdowns and there’s going to be a lot of blood.”
Luckily for Berto, the contract is already signed for the Mayweather fight, because by him calling Mayweather a boring fighter, I would be tempted to walk away from the fight if I were Mayweather. If Berto thinks that Mayweather is boring, then he needs to look in another direction and start fighting guys that he feels are exciting. Berto hasn’t faced a murderer’s row of fighters in the last four years.
Berto has been fighting guys like Victor Ortiz, Steven Upsher Chambers, Jesus Soto Karass, and Josesito Lopez. It goes without saying that Berto had huge problems against those fighters. But if Berto had been facing the top contenders/champions from this era, Keith Thurman, Kell Brook, Amir Khan, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia, Tim Bradley, Marcos Maidana and Errol Spence Jr, he’d have some problems. Those are all good fighters. Berto should have already been fighting those types of fighters if he was truly interested in facing exciting fighters.
I believe that Berto will change his tune about Mayweather being a boring fighter after September 12th, because he’s going to find out the hard way how good Mayweather is.
Mayweather has taken a lot of grief from boxing fans for choosing to fight Berto, but he thinks those same fans will still wind up purchasing the fight on PPV or seeing it live at the beautiful MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“They always tune in. They say one thing and then they do another,” Mayweather said about the boxing fans who have been protesting his decision to fight Berto.
Comments are closed.