By Christopher Jason Young: Just like most of the boxing world I’m not too thrilled about the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Andre Berto match up. I figured if this is going to Mayweather “Last Hurrah” he would go out with a bang by facing one of the young hungry up and coming fighters who happened to be undefeated or another champion in his weight class.
Now personally I like Berto and I’m a fan of his, but to fight Berto now at this stage of his career I figured Mayweather sees another fighter who is not at his top peak and is trying to cash out on an easy payday. No matter what numbers Mayweather does he is still guaranteed a minimum of 32 million dollars.
I was recently thinking about hidden possibilities that could uncover in this fight. So I broached the intangibles to my brother, that there may be some hidden variables to take into consideration in this fight that people may have over looked. Just bear with me on this:
Mayweather’s Motivation?
With Mayweather, let’s just say that he is serious about retirement. He claims he doesn’t need the money, additionally; he has been talking about retiring for a while now. Has Mayweather gotten complacent to the point that he’s not only looking pass Berto, but he is not as motivated to train as hard he normally does in his previous fights. Think about it. Mayweather went all out and introduce new things in his training camp preparing for the Manny Pacquiao fight. He has never done previously. Mayweather knew that Pacquiao was the biggest fight of his career. So he dedicated himself to a more rigorous training and prep as he had not done so in years as he rises to the occasion. However, this present occasion does not require such hard core dedication, thus we may see a tremendous let down in training and preparation. There were a different type of hunger in Mayweather in preparation for that fight.. So it’s going to be difficult mentally to stay motivated for a guy like Berto after coming off his most recent and biggest win against Pacquiao.
The Big 49
Reaching that milestone is a tremendous achievement that cannot be underscored. Breaking the legendary Rocky Marciano 49-0 record is difficult. The last fighter who came close in tying that record with plans to retire after his 49th win, was the great Larry Holmes. He went in to his 49th professional fight defending his heavyweight title against reigning light-heavyweight champion Michael Spinks. The judges awarded Spinks with the win; however, many ring side experts and fans believed Holmes was robbed of a fair and just decision. You may have a few die hard fanatics out there that would never want to see the likes of Mayweather reaching that legendary milestone. We have witness many questionable decisions in the past, so let’s not put it past us now.
Tyson and Douglas factor
On a smaller scale, but similarly, let’s look at Tyson, who at the time, was undefeated, rich, and thought to be superman, however, he too fell into complacency. He stated he did not train as hard, and partied too much as this was thought to be such a one-sided fight with a huge payday for Tyson, however, we all witnessed the outcome of an underdog suddenly motivated. Nobody predicted the outcome and it truly shocked the boxing world. Boxing experts didn’t take Tyson/Douglas fight seriously. Everybody thought this was going to be another one-sided affair in which both Tyson and Mayweather expects to be victorious. Now I am not comparing the Hall of Famer with the future Hall of Famer as fighters, I’m looking at the time of their respective careers when they had a dark horse they choose as an opponent. When Tyson fought Buster Douglas, he thought he was going to be in the ring with the same Buster Douglas that inevitably mentally quit against Tony “TNT” Tucker for the vacant IBF Heavyweight title. What Tyson and the world didn’t take into consideration that the loss of his mother a month prior to this fight would be the difference in this fight. You have to understand, mentally, Buster didn’t have anything to lose that night. Additionally, Buster suffered the loss of his mother which was devastating to him. So he came with the mindset that failure is not an option and he was hungry like never before. If you look at Berto’s career, their career sort of mirrors each other. The personal and professional trials and tribulations, they both had three losses coming into their biggest fight of their careers. Just like Buster, Berto’s back is against the wall and he has nothing to lose with everything to gain. A win of this magnitude would not only open doors for him but could possibly be set for life financially. This opportunity in his career doesn’t get any better because he is in a fight everyone expects him to lose; all he has to do is win. He knows his time is now. There is no tomorrow and with Virgil Hunter in his corner and “X” factor he may have a decent shot to upset the applecart. Tyson was a 48-1 favorite to beat Douglas and as of this past Friday, Mayweather is 100-1 favorite to beat Berto. I personally I don’t mind seeing applecart’s being upset. So for me being from Florida, I’m going to root for Winter Haven’s own. Sometimes, you have to factor in the X, consider history and dream. Smart money indicates you bet on “Money”, but sometimes dreams do come true.
Side note: I’m sort of intrigue about the fight, but as of right now there is no way this fight should be on pay per view at that price. They are going to have to beef up the undercard to warrant such. Since his hardcore fans and boxing fans are the ones that are responsible for his prosperity it would of have been nice of him and Showtime to give back to the people on who made them rich by broadcasting this fight on cable.
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