By Allan Fox: Unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) will be ending his 19-year pro career on a low note tonight in his final title defense against 32-year-old former two division world champion Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) in a fight that few boxing fans want to watch on Showtime pay-per-view from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mayweather still has the popularity to bring in a lot of pay-per-view buys even against a weak opponent like Andre Berto. But that doesn’t mean that the boxing community are overjoyed to see Mayweather take on a soft opponent in a PPV bout that will cost $75 for fans to see on high definition on Showtime PPV.
If this is going to be Mayweather’s last fight, he’s really doing very little to help his legacy. Boxing greats like Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali, who Mayweather rates himself above, didn’t look to pad their records at the end of their careers. They both fought the best fighters they could.
Mayweather should have challenged himself by fighting the likes of Gennady Golovkin, Amir Khan, Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter or Danny Garcia in this fight. Golovkin was willing to come down to 154 to fight Mayweather, but that didn’t interest the superstar. He wanted Berto for some reason.
It would be an understandable choice by Mayweather if Berto’s career was going well, and he was a world title holder. But at this point, Berto is arguably not even a legitimate top 15 contender. He’s technically the interim WBA welterweight champion, but few boxing fans see him as someone who deserves to hold that title.
The excuses for not fighting Khan was the concerns that he wouldn’t be in prime condition because he was coming off of Ramadan.
Mayweather said Golovkin was too big for him at 160, and he doesn’t care that Golovkin would come down to 154 t make the fight happen.
With a victory over Berto, Mayweather will be equaling former heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record. It’s kind of disappointing the way that Mayweather is backing into the record by facing a weak opponent instead of an excellent one. Marciano finished his career against the great Archie Moore in 1955. This wasn’t a soft opponent for Marciano. He went out on a high point. I wish I could say the same thing for Mayweather. He’s taking an opposite strategy in ending his career against Berto. This is just too easy for Mayweather, and that’s why the boxing fans are upset with him about this. If it was a fight on free television then it wouldn’t be quite as bad, but it would still be a poor way for Mayweather to end his career and equal Marciano’s record.
Mayweather is fighting an opponent who has lost half of his last six fights. Mayweather says he picked Berto out because of the way that he looked in beating Josesito Lopez last March. Mayweather thinks Berto looked good in that fight. In fact, Berto did not look good in that fight. He lost the first 4 rounds and was on his way to losing until he hurt Lopez in the 5th. Berto finished Lopez off in the 6th.
The undercard is a good one with the following fights:
Badou Jack vs. George Groves
Roman Martinez vs. Orlando Salido
Jhonny Gonzalez vs. Jonathan Oquendo
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