And his comeback won?t be about money. There isn?t enough money in the world to satisfy an ambitious ego hungry for acclaim?
Some say that if this fight was a basketball game, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) would be cherry-picking. Maybe so. Yet the champ?s career has been nothing short of superb, taking on all comers, dodging no contender of consequence. His sterling record, a made to order sundae with the works. So putting a cherry (Berto) on top of his fistic dessert is merely a kingly prerogative.
At 3-3 in his last 6 fights, Berto will enter the ring with an apple in his mouth. Clearly, it is Mayweather?s fight to lose.
(Be advised: come Saturday evening, best invest your PPV $ going out to dinner.)
Meanwhile, the bout is drawing as much interest as a Jeb Bush rally. By mid-week 2100 tickets were still unsold at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. No surprise. Watching the flawless Mayweather methodically stalk yet another victim while systematically picking his bones clean, is like watching a legislator filibuster to prolong the inevitable. Enough already. A viewer?s eye tires of such predictably plodding performances, however skillfully executed.
As for the bout itself, look for Mayweather to be Mayweather, carving-up Berto (33-3, 23 KOs) with his surgically precise offense and perplexing defense, stopping the challenger by round 7. En route, this conservative monarch will again take no chances, playing the king as if afraid his opponent will play the ace. In boxing, caution is to daring what wisdom is to foolishness. And in the ring, Mayweather, candidate for TBE (the best ever) personifies the analogue precisely.
Berto?s only chance lies in catching the champ in a rare lapse, allowing him to win the lottery with his ace, a timely overhand right. Not likely, though stranger things have happened in boxing.
While Pretty Boy claims this bout will be his last, says here, a guy with his oversized ego will not be satisfied with merely matching Rocky Marciano?s record. The biggest challenge after success is shutting up about it. As ?Money? has yet to master neither his ego nor its unruly wagging tongue, Berto will prove less Mayweather?s Swan Song than his latest rendition of Swan Lake, prancing toward TBE distinction.
For Berto, however, it will be his Nutcracker.
An athlete?s ego forbids certain lines of thought, particularly when it comes to boxers hanging-up their gloves with finality. Sadly, we?ve seen it all too often. So, roll over Beethoven and tell Tchaikovsky the news?Floyd?s retirement shall be short-lived. And his comeback won?t be about money. There isn?t enough money in the world to satisfy an ambitious ego hungry for acclaim.
Speaking of Tchaikovsky, one might put Mayweather-Berto to the musical score of yet another of this Russian composer?s classics, Sleeping Beauty. As surely, this bout will lull the lot of us to sleep.
