Ah boxing. Not only is it among the worst ran sports in the world (I'm looking at you FIFA) but it's also got the biggest star who has the biggest set of negatives. Fighting a diminished Andre Berto is not going to remedy this.
I realize that Floyd Mayweather thinks that, by offering this fight on broadcast TV, he can rehabilitate his image with the "fans" (read: PPV buying public) but he's dead wrong. Having a fight on PBC only will serve to bring his shortcomings to an even larger audience.
What Floyd is: A very good (great) fighter who succeeds because his style is boring to the casual fan. Sure, to the purist, he's amazing to watch. The subtleties in his defense are among the best of all time and he can, when pushed, turn street and unleash power that is not world-beating, but which can hurt an opponent and knock him out.
Unfortunately, Floyd Mayweather is on of the most unlikeable people walking the planet. He's a convicted domestic abuser, he's arrogant and not afraid to tell you so, he's also allegedly a liar when it comes to matters of betting/money, and he has an outsized opinion in regards to his legacy.
This fight with Andre Berto is going to do absolutely nothing to change public perception, as Berto is now a shell of his former self and nearing the end of his career. He's a shop-worn fighter who's looking much older in the ring than his actual age. Coming up I was an Andre Berto fan, I still am. But even I have to admit that he's closer to the end of his career than he is to his prime. Fighting Floyd Mayweather is not the way to turn things around.
Contrary to what he says, this will not be Floyd's last fight. He sees the money and he sees the legacy that he thinks 50-0 will grant him. In other words, he sees a rematch with either Pacquiao or Cotto.
None of those three fights would I want to see.
I would like to see Mayweather potentially get in the ring with either Kell Brook or Timothy Bradley, I think the former has the power and speed to potentially hurt him and I think Bradley's awkward style has the ability to out-point him.
That we'll never see either of those two fights is why Mayweather's "TBE" talk is just so much background noise.
Time to move on to more interesting fights, and fighters as boxing enjoys a good run after the MayPac debacle. Let's no go back to that time, let's move forward to whatever is next. (pssst....Andre Ward and Ganady Golovkin battling it out for best pound for pound.)
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