By Chris Williams: Today at the final press conference, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) dropped a pretty significant hint that he’ll be continuing his boxing career after his fight against Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) on Saturday night. When interviewed by Showtime’s Brian Custer, Mayweather said that he’s looking at only one fight at a time.
Here’s what Mayweather said: “We’re going for the knockout. I’m not overlooking No.49. We’re going to take care of each fight as they come.”
If that’s not a huge hint that Mayweather will be continuing his career next year in 2016 then I don’t know what is. Mayweather was smiling when he said this as well, which means pretty clearly that he’ll be back inside the ring next year.
“I’m pretty sure he’s going for the knockout also,” Mayweather said. “We’re going out there and we’re going to oppose the pressure from the gate.”
Mayweather went on to say that he knows that Berto skipped a workout the other night. Berto denied that he skipped the workout. It doesn’t really matter whether he did or didn’t. What matters is Berto is in trouble in this fight, and unless he comes into the fight with a plan A, B, C, D, E and F, he’s going to have major problems on Saturday night when he gets inside the ring at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mayweather and Berto had a long stare down after the press conference had ended. There was no talking at all during the stare down. It was just pure angry stares from both guys.
There’s no shame for Mayweather if he does retire off of the Berto fight because it’s still a very good way for him to end his career. But with the good clean cash that Mayweather can make in a second fight against the Filipino star Manny Pacquiao, you’d hate to see Mayweather walk away from the sport without scooping that cash up first. It would also give Mayweather a chance to show the small segment of the boxing community who believe that the only reason that he beat Pacquiao was because of his shoulder injury.
Mayweather could shut those fans up permanently by giving Pacquiao another schooling. Those fans could then play the replay of the fight in slow motion backwards and forwards and try to make what they can of the fight, but the reality will be that Mayweather beat Pacquiao a second time. Many of Pacquiao’s fans played the May 2nd fight between the two stars in slow motion, and they’ve come to the conclusion that he was robbed by the three judges.
Berto said he’s looking for respect. When he was speaking at the podium, he focused some of his attention on the media, who have already largely written him off as the loser of the fight already. Berto doesn’t like that. He thinks that the media can’t do what he does by fighting, because he thinks they would never want to take that kind of risk. Berto’s speech probably won’t change the media’s mind about them seeing the fight as a mismatch, but if it makes Berto feel better having said his thing then it’s all good.
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