Mayweather: It didn’t matter what opponent I chose

By Boxing News - 09/13/2015 - Comments

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By Dan Ambrose: At the post-fight press conference last night, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs) justified his decision to pick out the over-matched Andre Berto (30-4, 23 KOs) as his opponent for his final fight of his career at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mayweather said that it wouldn’t have mattered who he fought.

The result would have been the same with him beating whoever was in the ring with him. I’m not sure if that’s a completely accurate statement. To be sure, Mayweather would have likely beaten any of the top welterweights like Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman or Tim Bradley. But I don’t think Mayweather would have defeated Gennady Golovkin. I think Mayweather would have been knocked out by Golovkin, even if the fight took place at 154. The outcome wouldn’t have been the same with Golovkin as it was against the over-matched Berto. I think Mayweather realizes that because he chose not to fight Golovkin.

I also think the fight would have been a lot more exciting than it turned out to be if Mayweather had selected one of the above mentioned fighters. Mayweather was so much better than the 32-year-old Berto that the fight wound up to be a less than exciting affair. Mayweather won the fight by the scores of 120-108, 117-111, and 118-110. I think the 120-108 score was the most accurate of the three.

Berto didn’t win one round of the fight in my opinion, and Mayweather gave him plenty of chances to get his offense untracked. Berto just couldn’t pull the trigger on his punches. He looked like the textbook definition of a completely shot fighter. This would have been an exciting fight 10 years ago when Berto was at his best, but it definitely wasn’t last night.

“I know I made upwards of $70 million tonight,” Mayweather said. “I know I done great numbers tonight. Hopefully, I’ve done good numbers in all of the homes. I’m pretty sure I didn’t do Pacquiao numbers. I keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best. I’ve accomplished everything in the sport. So now it’s time for me to help the young fighters break my records. He [Berto] gained some fame from me. He made $4 million. I’m pretty sure it’s going to open up some doors for him. I’m glad I was able to put him in that position to do that. It don’t matter what opponent I choose. It would still be the same results. I made you eat your words. Never beat against me. Could you imagine what your bank book would look like if you bet on me 49 times? I beat all the top guys in the sport for 19 years, and I’ve been a world champion for 18 years. I had an incredible career. It’s all about that IQ. I’m 10 steps ahead of every fighter. I take whatever your best attribute is, I take it away from you and make you resort to doing what you don’t want to do.“

I suspect that the pay-per-view numbers for the Mayweather-Berto fight won’t be too good. They might hit 1 million, but if Mayweather is hoping for more than that, he’ll be disappointed. We’ll probably never know what the PPV numbers are because sometimes their never announced.

As far as the fight opening doors for Berto, I don’t think so. He might be able to get a fight against someone like Amir Khan, because he’s with the same adviser Al Haymon and it’s a fight that wouldn’t be a risk for Khan to take. Keith Thurman is another fighter that Berto could find himself facing in the future. But those are match-ups that would have been there even without Mayweather fighting him first. Berto will lose to any top fighter. I don’t think he can beat any top 15 contender. He defeated Josesito Lopez to get the Mayweather fight, but Lopez isn’t ranked in the top 15 with any of the sanctioning bodies.



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