By Allan Fox: Negotiations between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Andre Berto are still not finalized for their September 12th fight, according to TMZ. The negotiations are moving forward and it’s looking good that the two of them will be facing each other at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Berto, 31, really wants this fight, and putting the fight together shouldn’t be too much of an obstacle. However, Team Mayweather is still looking at other options for the September fight just in case they’re unable to make a deal with Berto.
Mayweather has a long line of fighters that want to face him next, which means Berto doesn’t have much negotiation pull to get what he wants in the contract. If Berto and his management ask for too much, then Mayweather can simply move on to face the likes of Karim Mayfield, Amir Khan, Shawn Porter or Keith Thurman.
It’s unknown what the pecking order is in terms of who Mayweather’s management will be looking to negotiate next with if the Berto negotiations fail to blossom. But you would expect it to be Mayfield, Khan, Porter and Thurman in that order. Since it seems that Mayweather is looking more for a stay busy fight rather than someone that has an actual chance of beating him, Mayfield would be the next best opponent for Mayweather to fight if he can’t iron out an agreement with Berto’s management.
The source for TMZ feels confident that Mayweather’s management will be able to successfully complete the negotiations with Berto. It’s not like Mayweather is negotiating with Pacquiao’s promoters at Top Rank for a fight. This should be fairly simple unless Berto feels he’s got more bargaining muscle than what his poor resume would have you believe. They expect movement in the next three days.
It’s unknown why Mayweather wants to fight Berto. The fight makes little sense now because Berto is more of a fighter from yesterday than he is from today’s top guys. Mayweather vs. Berto would have been a good fight back in 2011, before Berto was beaten by Victor Ortiz, Robert Guerrero and Jesus Soto Karass. The fight would have made a lot of sense back then, but not anymore. Berto’s career is now more like a journeyman level career rather than a top contender. The World Boxing Association has Berto ranked as their No.1 contender at 147, but the ranking merely makes the WBA look odd in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans.
The WBA has Berto ranked above the likes of Khan, Marcos Maidana, Shawn Porter, Guerrero and Errol Spence Jr. I don’t think Berto would be able to go 12 rounds with any of them. Those fighters are so much better than Berto is now in my view. The WBA’s ranking just makes them look out of touch with what’s going on in the boxing world. Someone like Spence would likely KO Berto in one or two rounds. The same with Porter and Maidana. Khan would box circles around Berto and make him look really old, even though he’s only 31.
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