By Allan Fox: Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) couldn’t help but notice a lot of the criticism of him from boxing fans today after the news was released about him fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. on September 12th on Showtime pay-per-view from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. A lot of fans are deeply disappointed in Mayweather’s selection of Berto, as they don’t see him as having earned the fight.
It reflects badly on Mayweather for picking a fighter as poor as Berto. Fans wanted to see Mayweather select someone like Shawn Porter, Amir Khan, Kell Brook or Keith Thurman. However, Berto says he’s going to use the hate from fans as motivation to bring him to victory.
Appreciate all the love today. Also appreciate all the hate. All of it will fuel me til 9/12. #TheHarvestIsComing pic.twitter.com/Sy6WnjldgM
— Andre Berto (@AndreBerto) August 5, 2015
S*#t I was so close in making Sotto karass vs Andre Berto II
— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) August 4, 2015
If the hate is really going to fuel Berto to a win in this fight, then he’s going to have an easy time beating Mayweather, because there are few fans that see this fight in a positive way. They just think that Mayweather is taking advantage of the boxing public by pushing a poor fight on them and then asking for them to pay to see it. What makes this really bad is the fact that it’s coming off of a really poor fight between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao last May in the “Fight of the Century’ in which fans were asked to pay $100 to see the fight on pay-per-view.
Instead of it being an entertaining fight, it was a real bore with Mayweather using a lot of movement to avoid Pacquiao’s attacks. After the fight, Pacquiao made things even worse by revealing that he had fought with a torn rotator cuff that left his injured shoulder at only 60% capacity. Fans felt that it wasn’t right that they had to [ay so much money to see a fight that featured one fighter with a serious shoulder injury that should have forced the fight to be delayed.
Berto is so far out of Mayweather’s league in terms of talent that it probably doesn’t matter how much hate he uses for motivation. Hate can only help a fighter just so much. If they don’t have the talent to win the fight, then the hate will never be enough. They’ve got to bring a lot more to the table than that.
Unless Mayweather was impressed with Berto’s losses to Victor Ortiz, Robert Guerrero or Jesus Soto Karass in the last four years, then the only reason Berto is getting the Mayweather fight is because of his wins over Steven Upsher Chambers and Josesito Lopez. Those are Berto’s only wins in the last four years. Before this fight, Mayweather had always selected fighters that were coming off of impressive wins. But you can’t say that about Berto, because his last two wins have come against weak opposition in Lopez and Chambers.
Comments are closed.