By Jim Dower: Former two division world champion Zab Judah believes that Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) has a chance in his fight against WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) on September 12th on Showtime pay-per-view from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Judah sees Berto as still young at 31, and someone who has the drive to win due to his upbringing. Judah thinks that Berto’s warrior heart will make him fight hard to try and get the win over Mayweather.
Berto is seen by a lot of boxing fans as not having any chance whatsoever in beating Mayweather in this fight. The odds-makers have already installed Mayweather as a heavy favorite. So if Berto is going to pull off an upset in this fight, Mayweather is going to need to have a really off game for that to happen.
“It’s going to be a bigger and interesting fight than a lot of people of think,” Judah said to Fighthype about Beto’s chances against Mayweather on September 12th. “Berto is a kid, you know, he’s from poverty. The kid understands his opportunity. Berto’s going to come in there and fight with all his heart. Can he beat Floyd? That’s another question. Floyd right now is on another planet, as far as what he’s doing in boxing,” Judah said.
There’s no question that Berto will be trying his best to get a victory in this fight, but that still doesn’t mean he’s going to be able to do the job on Mayweather. Berto does better against guys that are slower, easier to hit, and who don’t have much of a chin. When Berto has faced better opposition during his career, he’s lost.
Berto beats the lower B and C level guys, but when he steps it up against a decent B level fighter, he loses every time. Berto was beaten by Victor Ortiz, Jesus Soto Karass, and Robert Guerrero. Berto has never faced an A-level guy until now, and that doesn’t bode well for him.
The 31-year-old Berto does have the age advantage over the 38-year-old Mayweather. In theory, that could help Berto have a better chance of winning the fight, but I’m not sure if it’s going to help him enough to get the victory. Mayweather has lost some of his skills in recent years due to him getting older, but he’s such an intelligent fighter that he’s able to continue to fight at a high level.
Berto doesn’t have the same kind of ring intelligence. If you watched Berto fumble through his fight against Guerrero two years ago in trying to figure out how to use the shoulder roll defense. Berto had no clue how to properly use the shoulder roll in that fight against Guerrero.
Instead of abandoning it and going with some other tactic, Berto stuck with it and took a terrible beating from Guerrero. Had that been Mayweather who was struggling with a new fighting style, he wouldn’t have stuck with it for the full 12 rounds without adapting. If Berto couldn’t even adapt against a limited fighter like Guerrero, then it stands to reason that he’s not going to be able to outsmart a fighter like Mayweather when he gets in the ring with him on September 12th.
Perhaps Berto’s best chance of beating Mayweather is to try and overpower him and catch him with something big from the get go. If he can catch him with something big from the start, then it’s possible that he could hurt him with something the way that Shane Mosley hurt Mayweather with a right hand in their fight in 2010. But if Berto hurts Mayweather, he’s going to need to be ready to jump all over him with a flurry of shots to try and get a knockout.
If Berto can’t finish Mayweather off, then he’s going to be in for a lot of trouble for the remainder of the fight. Mayweather will use his defense to pot shot Berto and make him look really bad. But Berto definitely has a puncher’s chance, and hopefully he’s aware of what he needs to be trying to do when he gets inside the ring with Mayweather. Berto has to try and go for a knockout in this fight, preferably early on. If Berto attempts to box with Mayweather, he’s going to get taken to school.
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