While we’ve known for months that we would see Floyd Mayweather back in the ring in September, it was cloudy as to who his opponent would be. Names like Amir Khan, Kell Brook, and Adrien Broner were all thrown around in the speculation process, but none were chosen. Instead, heavy handed veteran Andre Berto is the man who will get the chance to hand Mayweather his first loss.
http://gty.im/466175822
Berto’s record stands at 30-3, with 23 of those wins coming by way of knockout. At one time, Berto was expected to be the next great welterweight, and a possible heir to Mayweather’s throne. The first five years of his career, up until 2011, his record was unblemished. The momentum of Berto’s career was then derailed when he lost three of his next four. Two of those losses came to great fighters in Victor Ortiz and Robert Guerrero, but the real disappointment was his loss to a lower tier Jesus Soto Karass. Perhaps Berto is on the upswing, as he has two wins in a row, with his most recent being a knockout of Josesito Lopez.
This will be the last fight on Mayweather’s contract with Showtime, which falls under the CBS umbrella. There was speculation recently that this fight could possibly take place on CBS, which would end a long run of Pay-Per-View fights for Mayeather. It was confirmed in the announcement, however, that this fight will indeed be on Showtime PPV.
Mayweather has said that this will be his final fight, but that is unlikely. A win will make him 49-0, which matches the mark set by Rocky Marciano, the only fighter to retire undefeated after a long career. Mayweather’s penchant for one-upsmanship makes it doubtful that he would retire with chance to surpass Marciano’s historic mark.
The criticisms of Mayweather are already coming out. While Berto is no slouch, there were certainly better fighters more deserving of this shot. The aforementioned Khan was the most likely contender, but he was “talking too much,” for Mayweather’s taste. While a skilled boxer that would have likely produced another snooze-fest with Mayweather, Khan remains one of the biggest threats to Mayweather’s clean record, and was denied a fight for being annoying.
Another fight that would have made more sense would have been a rematch with Canelo Alvarez. While the first fight wasn’t necessarily close, Canelo has improved his boxing substantially since then and learned a lot from the first fight. That also remains the only blemish on Canelo’s record, who has been on a tear recently, with his most recent fight being a brutal third round knockout of James Kirkland.
Nonetheless, we have the matchup. Mayweather-Berto will take place on September 12th in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand. While the contracts have been signed, there is likely to be plenty of manufactured controversy to drum up excitement in the lead up to this fight, as public perception of this fight is nowhere near the hype of the Manny Pacquiao, and the opponent is not quite the caliber of Mayweather’s most recent matchups.