Berto fought better than Pacquiao, says Floyd Sr.

By Boxing News - 09/13/2015 - Comments

_DSC4369(Photo credit: Idris Erba/Mayweather Promotions) By Chris Williams: While Andre Berto (30-4, 23 KOs) has been receiving criticism today from all sides about his inept performance last night in fighting boxing’s biggest star in Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs) on Showtime pay-per-view, Floyd Mayweather Sr., and a number of other people, feel that Berto put in a better performance against Mayweather than Manny Pacquiao did in his loss to Mayweather on May 2nd of this year.

Floyd Sr. says Pacquiao take any risks at all in that fight against Mayweather, and then told people he had an injured shoulder afterwards. Floyd Sr. thinks Pacquiao wasn’t telling the truth when he said he had a shoulder injury.

I personally don’t know if he was or wasn’t, but I do agree that Berto put in a better performance against Mayweather last night than Pacquiao did.

“Man, it had to be Andre Berto,” Floyd Sr. said to Fighthype.com about Berto fighting better than Pacquiao against Mayweather. “Pacman didn’t take no kind of risk. He lied about his shoulder. That’s all he did.”

The difference I could between Berto and Pacquiao is that Pacquiao initially tried to get something going in the 1st round against Mayweather, but after he ate two hard right hands from Mayweather, he went into the shutdown mode for the remainder of the fight and didn’t even bother trying after that. Pacquiao fought like he was afraid to get knocked out by one of Mayweather’s hard right hands.

In comparison, Berto was hit with some big shots from Mayweather in the first couple of rounds, but instead of backing off and giving up mentally on the fight, Berto continued to put pressure on Mayweather for the entire fight and was able to even land some big punches in losing the fight by a 12 round decision.

Mayweather noted afterwards the incredible heart that Berto showed in the fight. There was no quit in the man at all. Even when Berto was getting really clowned in the later rounds by Mayweather, he kept coming forward looking to land one big home run punch that would get him the win.

“He’s a tough competitor, but experience played a major role tonight,” Mayweather said. “Andre Berto has a heart, tremendous heart,” Mayweather said. “He wouldn’t lay down. Good fight.”

Berto wouldn’t lay down. That’s the key difference between Pacquiao and Berto in how they fought Mayweather. Pacquiao went dormant when he got hit and effectively was finished for the night after the first couple of rounds. Berto kept trying and trying until the end of the fight.

Mayweather said after the fight that he thinks that Berto will be able to get some big fights off of this fight and his nice little $4 million pay day. I think Mayweather is right. Berto could land a title shot or a fight against one of the upcoming fighters.

I’d like to see Berto take on a good fighter like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, because that would give him a really big payday. But for Berto to get a fight against Canelo, he’ll need to put some nice wins together in back to back performances against contenders. I think Berto can do that if matched up against the right guys.



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