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| Floyd Mayweather Jr |
A win over Andre Berto would run Mayweather’s record to 49-0, moving him on level terms with Rocky Marciano. It would also fulfil his six-fight contact with CBS and Showtime, in effect making him a free agent before a prospective fight next year that could lift him past the late heavyweight champion.
Yet the public has largely rejected the mismatch. Criticism from all quarters has been acerbic. As of Wednesday more than 2,100 tickets were still available at the box office and the buzz around town is as muted as it has been for a Mayweather fight in years. With the national sporting consciousness preoccupied by the opening week of the NFL season, only hardcore boxing fans are even aware the fight is happening – let alone prepared to shell out the offensive sum of $74.95 for what is almost certain to amount to a workout.
It strains credulity to envision a fighter with Mayweather’s unique blend of ability, ego and capitalistic drive exiting the sport in such fashion – which gives Saturday’s event the feel of a stay-busy exercise ahead of the grand finale. Yet to their credit all involved parties are toeing the party line and keeping up appearances.
During a Mayweather conference call with reporters last week, the champion’s longtime consigliere, Leonard Ellerbe, jumped in no less than three times to emphasise the finality of the moment. “Like I’ve said and Floyd has said a number of times, this will be his last fight,” said Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions. “Why can’t a man go out when he’s had an illustrious career, accomplished everything that he needs to accomplish and be done?”
Of course somewhere within the wreckage of a promotion almost defiantly coined High Stakes there’s an actual prizefight that will take place.
Years ago Berto, who turned 32 last week, held a version of the welterweight title. But he’s 3-3 in his last six bouts, no longer a name or a threat. He lost decisions to Victor Ortiz and Robert Guerrero, who were both wiped out by Mayweather. Then he was knocked out by a gatekeeper named Jesús Soto Karass, suffering a torn shoulder tendon in the process. That was 25 months ago and he has done nothing in the interim to indicate he belongs in the same zip code as a fighter of Mayweather’s vintage.
So it came as little surprise when the MGM Grand sports book installed Mayweather as a 1-50 favourite; for comparison, in 1990 Buster Douglas was 42-1 against when he beat Mike Tyson. Mayweather’s price has since been slashed to 1-30. It runs counter to the hard-won reputation of Mayweather, who is always prepared and has never shown a dip in form throughout a preposterous 19-year championship reign, to think Berto has anything but the proverbial puncher’s chance.
Yet to his credit, the challenger believes that’s what he will deliver in what surely would rate among the biggest upsets in boxing history – if not the biggest of all.“He has a great IQ,” Berto said this week, “but one shot can change it all.”
