By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF/WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) made a brief statement on Wednesday about the rumors of him being picked out for Floyd Mayweather Jr’s next fight on September 12th. Berto, 31, didn’t say much in the statement other than he’s happy to be one of the guys that are being considered for the fight. He said he thinks it’ll be a nice if he gets the fight.
“I’m happy to be in the running for this fight and am definitely up for the challenge. I know it will be a great fight if it happens,” Berto said.
Berto’s comments suggest that he’s either keeping it on the down low by not speaking about the negotiations with Mayweather, which you would expect to be secret, or Berto hasn’t been contacted at all about the fight.
Amir Khan said last night that he’s hearing that Berto will be the one who is getting the Mayweather fight. Khan, 28, didn’t say who told him the news tidbit, but you would assume it would have to be someone in contact with Berto. Whether that is his trainer Virgil Hunter is unknown at this time.
As a whole, boxing fans aren’t too excited about the idea of Mayweather fighting Berto, because they want to see a more viable opponent than that. Berto was a good fighter from 2007-2011, but his career has really bottomed out in the last four years with him losing to Robert Guerrero, Victor Ortiz and Jesus Soto Karass. Those are fringe level fighters with the exception of Ortiz, who isn’t ranked at all in the top 15 at 147. In Berto’s last fight against Josesito Lopez, Berto looked really shaky until scoring a knockout in the 6th. Berto did not dominate that fight. On the contrary, Lopez looked to be the better fighter until getting stopped in the 6th.
Berto hasn’t done much to deserve a fight against Mayweather. He’s won his last two fights against Steven Upsher Chambers and Josesito Lopez, but he’s not beaten anyone good. There are really no names on Berto’s resume that he’s beaten that you can call good fighters. He’s beaten guys like Jan Zaveck, Carlos Quintana, Juan Urango, Luis Collazo, Stevie Forbes, Cosme Rivera and David Estrada. It seems that Berto was good at fighting these guys, but when he stepped up a level to facing the likes of Ortiz, Guerrero and Soto Karass, he was exposed as not being good enough to beat them.
Mayweather has the option of fighting whoever he wants. He just beat Manny Pacquiao last May, and with a win like that, it enables Mayweather to take his foot off of the accelerator with his career. He also best Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in 2013 and Miguel Cotto in 2012. The only guys that Mayweather hasn’t beaten in terms of relevant fighters at 147 are Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, Tim Bradley and Amir Khan. But we don’t really know how good those guys are.
Mayweather suggested that they do some weeding out by having either Porter or Thurman test themselves by facing unbeaten Errol Spence Jr. on Mayweather’s undercard on September 12th, but neither of them agreed to the fight. They instead wanted to fight Mayweather. What they don’t know is if Mayweather offered them the Spence fight as a test that they needed to pass for them to get a fight against him. By them saying no to the Spence fight, they may have closed the door to them getting a fight against Mayweather.
Comments are closed.