By Chris Williams: Now that the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao negotiations have finally been pronounced dead by Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum tonight on a conference call to the media, unbeaten World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight champion Andre Berto (26-0, 20 KO’s) expressed his own interest in stepping in and taking the fight against Pacquiao.
On Berto’s Twitter page, Berto had this to say: “Throw my name in the hat then. I’ll give the people what they want to see pay per view blockbuster. Let’s go!” I agree with Berto. I think he would make for an exciting opponent for Pacquiao, a lot better than either Miguel Cotto or Antonio Margarito, at least. But the problem with a Berto-Pacquiao fight is that Berto doesn’t fight for Top Rank, and Arum seems to be mostly matching up his fighters against each other nowadays.
Arum does make exceptions every now and then. Hopefully, Arum would see the positive in a fight between Pacquiao and the speedy fast Berto. I’m not saying that Berto would win, but he would make it interesting while it lasted because of his hand speed and power.
At 26, Berto is the future of the welterweight. He’s going to outlast all the top welterweights and will be up there with younger guys like Saul Alvarez once Mayweather, Shane Mosley and Pacquiao hang up their gloves for good. In his last three fights, Berto has defeated Luis Collazo, Juan Urango and Carlos Quintana.
It would be a big step up if Berto was to go from those fighters into a match against Pacquiao, but he’s certainly capable of fighting at his level. I think Berto is a lot better than Joshua Clottey, and we saw how he gave Pacquiao some problems in their March 13th fight at the Cowboy Stadium. Berto might even be able to out-box Pacquiao and earn a decision, as long as the judges would give it to him.
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