LAS VEGAS — There are some people who believe Saturday night’s match with Andre Berto at the MGM Grand will indeed be the last time Floyd Mayweather Jr. competes in a boxing ring.
And former 135-pound title-holder Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini told CBS Sports he’s one of them.
“I very well think it could be his last one,” said Mancini, who won a belt at age 21 and fought for the last time in 1992, four years before Mayweather turned pro at age 19. “Going for 50 to only break Rocky’s record would be too much backlash from the public and the boxing world, I believe.
“He doesn’t want to fight, doesn’t have to fight, so why would he? He fulfilled his obligation to CBS/Showtime, so what’s the point?”
Indeed, the Berto fight will be the finale of a six-fight pay-per-view deal Mayweather signed in early 2013, a pact that’s so far yielded wins over Robert Guerrero, Canelo Alvarez, Marcos Maidana (twice) and Manny Pacquiao. And the now 38-year-old has maintained throughout the buildup that the fight — at which he’ll defend his WBA and WBC shares of the welterweight title — will be his swan song.
“This is it. My health is more important than anything. I have a sharp mind, and I want to leave the sport the same way,” Mayweather said at a news conference, while his promotional right-hand man, Leonard Ellerbe, said the fighter has received multiple recent movie proposals — suggesting a future narrative in which he’d ride off into the cinematic sunset a la 1980s middleweight kingpin Marvin Hagler.
But the more he insists, the more people not named Mancini speculate.
A defeat of Berto would get him to 49-0 as a professional, equaling Rocky Marciano’s hallowed mark and lining him up to pursue No. 50 against any number of willing — and potentially lucrative — foes.
A rematch with Pacquiao. A rematch with either Alvarez or Miguel Cotto — who’ll fight for the WBC’s middleweight title in November. A showdown with IBO/WBA middleweight king Gennady Golovkin.
“I believe he will see how he feels after the fight,” Randy Gordon, former chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission and now a boxing host on Sirius/XM Radio, told CBS Sports. “If he’s sore, achy and beaten up, he may walk away for good. If he comes out unscathed, I believe he’ll announce his retirement after the fight, but plant the seeds for a comeback fight right after the New Year.”
In Berto, Mayweather faces a former two-time world champion at 147 pounds who’s 7-1 in eight career title fights, but also a guy who’s lost three of his last six fights and who’s never beaten anyone on the top level.
“[Berto] has good power, and if he catches anyone flush he can knock them out,” said Kevin Rooney Jr., who does publicity for DiBella Entertainment — Berto’s former promoter — and is the son of Mike Tyson’s ex-trainer. “That’s the problem, though. Catching Mayweather flush rarely, if ever, happens.”
The Floridian with Haitian roots won the vacant WBC welterweight title after Mayweather retired (for what turned out to be 21 months) in 2008, and defended five times before a 2011 loss to Victor Ortiz. He won the IBF’s championship later in 2011, but relinquished it to pursue a rematch with Ortiz that was ultimately scuttled when Berto tested positive for a steroid a month before the fight
He issued an immediate statement claiming he’d never knowingly ingested any banned substance, but his post-test career has always carried the footnote.
Berto lost consecutive bouts to Guerrero (UD 12) and Jesus Soto Karass (TKO by 12) in 2012-13, before rebounding to defeat Steve Chambers (UD 10) and Josesito Lopez (TKO 6) 12 and six months ago, respectively. The Lopez win earned him the WBA’s dubious interim title at 147 pounds, though, which was apparently all the collateral needed to make the Mayweather people call his name.
“It’s a long time coming. Now we’re here,” Berto said at the August press conference when the fight was announced. “Anybody that knows me has seen great things but at the same time they’ve seen me go through some real trials. What comes with that is a lot of hard work and perseverance. I felt like I went through what I went through for a reason. My time is now.”
The main event will top a four-bout Showtime pay-per-view card that will go live at 8 p.m. ET.
Preceding Mayweather and Maidana on the broadcast are a 10-round bout between 130-pounders Jhonny Gonzalez and Jonathan Oquendo, a 12-rounder at 168 pounds matching Badou Jack against George Groves and a 12-rounder at 130 pounds between Roman Martinez and Orlando Salido.
Showtime will also air a pre-PPV countdown show that begins at 6:30 p.m. and can also be streamed LIVE at CBS.com/fight.
The main event, which can also be watched LIVE at the above address, will bring Mayweather and Berto into the ring some time after 11 p.m. ET.
Mayweather is of course a significant favorite, nearly to the level that Mike Tyson was against Buster Douglas.
It’ll take a $3,000 wager to return $100 on him at Bovada.lv, while a $100 outlay on Berto would return $1,100 for an upset. In 1990, Tyson went off as 42-1 choice when he faced Douglas — a fight that’s considered by many as one of the greatest upsets in the sport’s history.
Can Berto pull off something similar?
“I think this will be one of Floyd’s best fights performance-wise, because Berto will be there trying to win and being aggressive,” Antonio Tarver, a former two-division world champion, told CBS Sports.
“He’ll make Floyd dig down with accurate power punches.”
