By Dan Ambrose: WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) spoke during a conference call with reporters earlier today to mostly talk about his next fight against Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) on September 12th on Showtime pay-per-view, and to talk his boxing career.
During the call, the 38-year-old Mayweather was asked if he’d be interested in fighting the winner of the November 21st fight between WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, and he said he didn’t see the point in fighting one of them for his 50th fight.
In other words, if he’s going to be returning to the ring for number 50, he’d be looking at another name rather than two guys he’s already beaten before in the past.
“Why would I fight one of them in my 50th fight?” Mayweather said.
If Mayweather does return for his 50th fight, then he’s going to need to think seriously about facing a good opponent so that the win will mean something. It doesn’t mean much if Mayweather selects especially weak guys so that he can make sure that he doesn’t get beaten. If Mayweather is having to guard his resume by facing soft jobs, then he definitely needs to retire because he’ll have brought himself back with the pack in doing what some of the more average world champions do in selecting beaten opposition so that they can milk their titles.
Mayweather would be leaving an incomplete legacy if he retires with a win over Berto rather than someone that the boxing fans have a great deal of respect for. It’s not that Berto isn’t a good fighter, because he is. But Berto is more of a name from the distant past rather than a guy who is relevant in this day and age. Berto had his 15 minutes of fame in holding down the IBF and WBC welterweight titles for a brief spell, but that time has come and gone. Berto is now a guy who struggles to beat fighters like Josesito Lopez. Nothing is easy for Berto any longer.
“When you have a guy put in a situation with nothing to lose, that makes him work that much harder because he’s got a chance to be one of the top guys in the sport when I’m through,” Mayweather said about Berto in trying to build him up in the media. “Is he trying to dethrone Floyd Mayweather? Absolutely. Like they say in football, ‘any given Sunday,’ I say ‘any given Saturday.’ Anything can happen, so I’m prepared mentally and physically.”
You know things are bad when you see Mayweather spending valuable time with the media building up his over-matched opponent rather than focusing on downing him instead, and talking about how he’s going to beat him. When Mayweather gets put in the position where he’s having to work to try and convince the media that he’s facing a quality opponent instead of an easy mark, it shows you that he’s got someone who doesn’t rate.
That’s bad for Mayweather because it means that the media doesn’t respect his choice of opponent. It’s also bad for Mayweather because it means he’s going to likely be losing out on a lot of pay-per-view sales for having selected an opponent that the fight fans aren’t interested in seeing. Mayweather is losing out on a great deal of money by failing to have selected a fighter that interests the boxing public like Amir Khan, Keith Thurman or Gennady Golovkin. If Mayweather had selected one of those guys, he wouldn’t have to be building them up in the media, because they wouldn’t need to be build up. The media would naturally respect them and see them as worthy opponents for Mayweather.
“I’m in top shape, I’m sure he’s in top shape and he’s ready,” Mayweather said. “But I’m not going to overlook this guy…I’m looking at it just like this. I want to win just like he wants to win, so I’m pushing myself every day. As I get older, I’m working harder. Actually I think this camp I sparred a lot more, I think I worked harder for this fight than the Pacquiao fight. Of course it’s always about self-preservation. I come first, but I appreciate the fans. It don’t matter who I chose. They’ll always criticize.’ ‘I regret not having Al Haymon from the beginning.”
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