By Tim Fletcher: For a lot of the sport of boxing they’re not too pleased with the news from Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) that he plans on retiring after he faces Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) for the final fight of his career this Saturday on September 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. For Mayweather to retire like this while he’s still on top of the sport comes across as almost betrayal by him in the minds of some fans. To some, it just seems like a selfish move by Mayweather to retire now rather than fighting on.
They don’t like it, they don’t understand, and they especially don’t like the way he’s getting out of the sport by facing a weak opponent in Berto rather than someone good. For the fans, they wanted to see Mayweather go out in a heroic way by taking on someone at the top of the game like Gennady Golovkin, Keith Thurman or the winner of the Miguel Cotto vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight.
Berto isn’t the top of anything. He’s just the interim WBA welterweight champion. Berto didn’t even have to beat anyone really good top claim that partial title. He just had to beat high level journeyman Josesito Lopez.
“Like I’ve said and Floyd has said a number of times, this will be his last fight,” Ellerbe said via RingTV.com. “Why can’t a man go out when he’s had an illustrious career, accomplished everything that he needs to accomplish and be done? And he’s done it his way.”
The reason why Mayweather can’t go out of the sport is because the fans aren’t ready to let him go. Mayweather is fighting at too high of a level for him to leave the sport. It would be like the famous Hall of Fame baseball player Babe Ruth retiring after hitting 60 home runs in his last season.
Ruth’s fans and the entire baseball world would be all over Ruth if he tried to retire after hitting 60 homeruns for the New York Yankees. It’s the same with Mayweather. He just finished beating Manny Pacquiao in his last fight, which is the equivalent of hitting 60 homeruns.
The boxing fans don’t understand why Mayweather has to retire now. They want to keep him fighting and accomplishing greater things like beating Pacquiao a second time with him 100 percent healthy, and then beating Gennady Golovkin and the winner of the Miguel Cotto vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight.
“You should know what I’ve done to Canelo, Pacquiao, and Cotto. So I’m through with them, why would I fight them in my 50th fight?” Mayweather said.
Mayweather might not be interested in fighting Canelo, Pacquiao or Cotto again, but there are legions of boxing fans that have a great deal of interest in seeing Mayweather fight those guys again. It would give Mayweather a chance to prove that his wins over those fighters weren’t a fluke thing, and it would let fans see him do it again.
What really looks bad is Mayweather retiring with such a bad opponent. Berto stands no chance to win this fight, and he’s not someone that the fans care to see. By not listening to the fans and shoving Berto down their throats for his fight final, it just comes across to fans as really poor taste. It’s like Mayweather is half stepping it for his final fight. The great Babe Ruth wouldn’t have taken it easy in his final game, especially if he was still at the top like Mayweather.
Comments are closed.