Berto has a chance to make history against Mayweather, says Virgil Hunter

By Boxing News - 08/29/2015 - Comments

Image: Berto has a chance to make history against Mayweather, says Virgil HunterBy Tim Fletcher: Trainer Virgil Hunter sees a big opportunity for his fighter Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) in his fight against Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) on Showtime pay-per-view two weeks from now on September 12th from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Hunter notes that the 31-year-old Berto can make history by becoming the first guy to defeat Mayweather while at the same time helping create a legacy for himself with that win. Unlike a lot of other boxing fans, Hunter believes that Berto has a chance of beating Mayweather.

Hunter feels that his fighter has the power, speed and talent to get the job done. Berto just needs to want it enough to get the win. He needs to believe in himself.

“We have a unique opportunity right in front of us. We have a chance at history and to cement a legacy for my fighter (Berto),” Hunter said. “What is the key to winning this fight? (Berto) has got to want to win. He has to want it more. He holds the keys in his hand.”

Berto definitely has to want it more, and he’s got to have a good game plan for him to have a chance to win. Berto clearly isn’t going to go out there and out-box a fighter like Mayweather. We saw Berto try and out-box Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero in 2012, and he ended up taking a real bad beating from him in losing a 12 round decision.

Berto will need to have a plan in mind of going out there and knocking Mayweather out as fast as he can on September 12th, because if he can’t get to him early, he’s going to get badly schooled.

Once Mayweather gets the upper hand in his fights, it’s all downhill the rest of the way for his opponents no matter who they are. Berto doesn’t rate as high as some of the guys that Mayweather has been beating in the last few years. Berto isn’t even close to being as good as the guys that Mayweather has defeated since 2012. However, Berto does have good punching power and decent speed, and those qualities will at least give him a chance at winning.

“If (Berto) wins this fight, you’ll see me jumping up and down and it will be hard to compose myself,” Hunter said. “I’m usually pretty composed, but you might see me jump up and fall out of the ring and hit my head or something.”

It would be a huge triumph for Berto as well as Hunter if he somehow defeats Mayweather and adds his scalp to his resume. There’s something magical about win No.49 for fighters. We saw how Larry Holmes came up short when he attempted to win his 49th consecutive win. He failed against Michael Spinks years ago in 1985 in losing a 15 round decision. Mayweather is trying to equal the late heavyweight world champion Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record that he set in 1956.

A couple of other fighters have beaten Marciano’s record, but not one did it in facing the high caliber opposition that Mayweather faced his entire career. Julio Cesar Chavez beat Marciano’s record, but he did it against a lot of fluff opposition.

If you take out all the soft opponents that Chavez fought during his career, you would be hard pressed to find even 20 good fighters out of that bunch. Mayweather has fought opposition for years. Ricardo Lopez is another fighter that broke Marciano’s record, but he had the same padded resume that Chavez had. There were some good wins on Lopez’s resume, but a whole bunch of weak opponents.

“It’s not fair to the fight game to say this is a free shot and to go in there and say we have nothing to lose. We have everything to lose,” Hunter said.

Berto definitely has something to lose if he gets beaten by Mayweather. Currently, Berto is the interim WBA welterweight champion. If he gets beaten by Mayweather, then he’ll lose his title and his record will be 3 and 4 in his last seven fights. It’s going to make a lot tougher to get another world title shot with all those defeats. Berto won’t be able to just fight another Josesito Lopez and find himself fighting for a world title. Worst of all, if Berto loses to Mayweather, he’ll miss out on a big money rematch against him.



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