By Allan Fox: Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) plans on keeping unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) using his mobility against him to circle the ring this Saturday night like he did in his last fight against the Philippine’s Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd this year.
Mayweather was able to take away Pacquiao’s offensive weapons by using constant movement to keep him from being able to get off his speedy punches. Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach had planned on him overwhelming Mayweather with punches by throwing upwards to 80-100 punches per round to get the decision, but Mayweather’s movement foiled their plans.
Berto says he’s not going to just stand around watching Mayweather move all night long. He’s going to go after him and force him to fight. Pacquiao wasn’t able to do that because he didn’t have the ability to cut off the ring on Mayweather. Now we’re going to see if Berto is good enough to cut off the ring on the “Money” man to force him into a war.
“One thing I can do is scrap,” Berto said. “On September 12th, I’ll see a victory. That’s it. Everybody knows I’m not going to stand there and let you run around the ring all day. I’m going to come and get it,” Berto said.
Initially, Berto may not need to need to chase Mayweather around. Mayweather has said openly that he’s going to make the fight exciting by punching with Berto. This means that we’re going to see Mayweather fighting more like he did in his fight against Miguel Cotto and his first fight against Marcos Maidana, than he did against Pacquiao.
That, of course, is subjective to change if Berto proves to be too good in the trenches against Mayweather. If Berto hurts Mayweather and if he wins at least three of the first six rounds of the fight, then you can bet that Mayweather will make adjustments to get on his bike and start moving a lot.
Trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. will definitely be telling Mayweather to stop mixing it up and get on his bike if things don’t go well for him in the first half of the fight. Floyd Sr. is a defensive coach, and he does not like to see his son Mayweather Jr. take needless punishment just so that he can entertain the boxing fans and try for a knockout.
Floyd Sr. is just as happy to see Mayweather win without getting hit as he is to see him scoring a knockout. Floyd Sr. will be telling Mayweather to use his left hook a lot in the fight, because he believes in that punch. He thinks that Mayweather can score knockouts with it. However, I don’t think Berto will be too bothered by Mayweather’s left hook all that much. It’s his straight right hand that will give Berto most of the problems in this fight, but the power on those shots diminishes when his opponents get close.
“Everybody was upset that Pacquiao vs. Mayweather was so boring, but I’m never in a boring fight,” Berto said. “I have respect for what he’s accomplished, but I want to take that all away from him.”
Mayweather-Pacquiao was a very boring fight. Berto is dead right by pointing that out. Mayweather wasn’t going to take any chances against Pacquiao by punching with him because he was apprehensive about his punching power and hand speed. Berto arguably has better punching power than Pacquiao, and hand speed that is almost as good as him.
The main difference between Pacquiao and Berto is that Berto doesn’t throw combinations like Pacquiao does. Berto does throw combinations, but far fewer in number. If you stand in front of Pacquiao, he’ll throw dozens of punches in a small time frame.
Berto can’t do that, but he can throw enough combinations to worry a fighter like Mayweather, especially with his punching power. I think Berto hits harder than Pacquiao does. That’s why I think we’re going to see Mayweather re-think his plan on slugging with Berto once he gets hit hard with something big. We saw in Mayweather’s fight with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in 2013 a change in fighting style by Mayweather once he was hit hard by one of Canelo’s big right hands in the 9th round.
Mayweather stopped standing in the pocket against Canelo, and started using movement from the 9th round until the 12th. Canelo ended up being frustrated in his inability to cut off the ring on Mayweather and force him to fight.
“19 years on top, and I’ve got a chance to go in there and shock the world. I’m going to push to the end of the earth to do what it takes to get the job done,” Berto said.
This is the 31-year-old Berto’s big chance of beating Mayweather. Unless Berto takes advantage of this opportunity by beating Mayweather, he probably won’t be getting any more shots like this in the future.
If Berto loses the fight, then he can forget about getting a payday against Canelo, Miguel Cotto or Gennady Golovkin. Those fights would be potentially available to Berto if he beat Mayweather. Also, Berto would lose out on a chance to get a rematch with Mayweather. If Berto beats Mayweather, then he definitely will be getting a rematch against him. I can’t see Mayweather walking away and ending his career on a loss. He’d definitely come back in 2016 to fight Berto for a second time to try and redeem himself and end his career on a positive note. But even if Mayweather beat Berto in a rematch, he’d still need to beat someone special like Golovkin to make boxing fans forget about his earlier loss to Berto.
That’s the whole trap in losing to a guy like Berto. Mayweather picked out a guy who isn’t all that relevant, and who many hardcore boxing fans believe is a shot fighter. If Mayweather beats Berto, no one will care at all, and he won’t get any credit. But if Mayweather loses to Berto, or is made to struggle to win, it’s going to be a big hit on Mayweather’s legacy. Sure, Mayweather could call himself the ‘The Best Ever’ [TBE], but few people would believe it. He would be one of the few people who would believe he’s the best ever. The Best Ever doesn’t lose to guys like Andre Berto.
“They want to know if I’m retiring. Absolutely,” Mayweather said. “Boxing puts a lot of wear and tear on your body. There’s nothing cool about getting hit. Boxing is the sweet science. The name of the game is to hit and not get hit. I didn’t come into this sport to take punishment. I came into this smart to be smart and leave with a sharp mind.”
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