By Robert “Big Moe” Elmore: The urge to see Floyd Mayweather lose is still large. It’s still growing. The growing of him wanting to lose to Manny Pacquiao came and went. Immediately after Floyd defeated Pac, the cry of “Floyd needs to fight Gennady Golovkin to seal his legacy” ran amuck on the boxing blogs.
Even highly respected analyst trainer Teddy Atlas said that Floyd needed the Golovkin fight to stamp his legacy. Mayweather’s fight with former two time welterweight champion Andre Berto is a week away and the fight has been met with much criticism. I can understand why. After the Pac fight, there was nowhere to go. But as much as people are criticizing Floyd’s choice of Berto, if Berto defeats Mayweather, you better believe those critics will turn into Berto supporters.
The internet will run wild with every kind of article and blog rejoicing how Floyd lost. The streets will be filled with rejoicing voices as they will dance through the night. September 12th 2015, will forever be remembered as the day that the pound for pound king lost his first fight.
So let’s say Berto wins. Here is what will happen. His victory lap will be short lived as the public will love him for a few hours and move on to the next boxer. Berto’s pay days won’t go from 3 million (which he is allegedly getting for this fight) to 30 plus million a fight, and he won’t become pay per view king. He can’t be like Buster Douglass after he defeated Mike Tyson in 1990 and turn around and lose the title in his first defense. He will need to follow this victory up more solid wins. I’m a big fan of consistency when it comes to criticism.
Some fans will sit on the fence and wait to see how a fight will turn out. Right now, Berto is proclaimed as bum who was beaten up by Robert Guerrero, and whose victory over Joseito Lopez was not enough to land in a fight with Mayweather. If he’s a bum now, then proclaim him so if he beats Floyd. His record then would be 4-3 in seven fights. And to others Berto is a respected boxer who was a two time welterweight champ. Should Floyd win, this will be the 24 former champ that he has beaten.
Berto is 3 and 3 in his last six fights, but that won’t matter to the public. In fact, that will be the story line. “Floyd lost to a man who was 3 and 3 in his last six fights”. But this is how bad people want to see Floyd lose. The media is making a big what to do about Mayweather equaling Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record. There have been many different stances taken the undefeated records. One of them has been racially related.
As far as I know, no black fighter has retired undefeated. Floyd can be the first. Larry Holmes was seeking to break the record years ago when he was 48-0, but he was defeated by Michael Spinks. It won’t be history at all though because there have been boxers who have surpassed 49-0, but lost somewhere down the road.
There are no real comparisons between Mayweather and Marciano outside of the boxing record. Marciano debuted as a heavyweight and retired as a heavyweight. Floyd started as super featherweight and is finishing as welterweight (having fought three times at junior middleweight). Berto and Mayweather both have a chance to make history. Who will it be?
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