This Saturday, April 16, one of boxing?s most prestigious fighters, undefeated Andre Berto, defends his welterweight title. Didn?t know that? You?re probably not alone.
Berto?s bout against Victor Ortiz (24-2; 22 KOs) will take place at the MGM Grand. Not the one in Las Vegas, the one at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut, in front of 4,000 people. It will be televised on HBO, but not as a pay-per-view event. While boxing?s main meal ticket, Manny Pacquiao, basks in the hype of his upcoming Vegas pay-per-view bout with Shane Mosley in May, Berto will climb into the ring against Ortiz in relative anonymity.
In a different era, a fight of this magnitude would have commanded a lot more attention and money. But the collective yawn over the matchup symbolizes boxing?s decline. Berto (27-0) is a talented fighter, a former Olympian, and a social networker with 25,000 twitter followers. He?s also earned a ?good guy? reputation for his efforts to establish a foundation for Haiti earthquake victims (Berto is a Haiti native who now lives in Florida). Just over a year ago, boxing guru Bert Sugar pegged him to Forbes as the sport?s top ?athlete to watch.?
Yet the 27-year-old Berto still struggles with a small fan base thanks to a number of fights against less than overwhelming opponents, and inactive period from May 2009 to April 2010 spurred by the tragedy of losing some family members in Haiti earthquake. Sugar says Berto still rates as an up and comer, but that his journey to the sport?s upper echelon has been painfully slow. ?He?s a good fighter who needs to be seen, period,? says Sugar. ?Boxing needs fights and Berto is a guy that can give it fights.? A talented welterweight division, Sugar thinks, does carry the potential for a number of good bouts for Berto.
Meantime, it?s rare to find the talented boxer doing much promotional work that isn?t centered around his next fight. ?Boxing needs to cultivate personalities, to get guys out there doing events like MMA does with its up and coming fighters,? says Shawn McBride, a vice president with Ketchum Sports Network. Then there?s the industry?s obsession with insulting fans? intelligence ? putting more of a premium on sending a boxer into the ring with an undefeated record than on building his resume and fan base against quality opponents. ?It?s not undefeated ? wow!? says Sugar. ?It?s undefeated ? how??
The most promising news for Berto: a win could land him a bout with Pacquiao, a matchup that Berto promoter Lou DiBella has been trying to land for awhile now. But as lucrative as that could be, it?s also a reminder of how dependent the sport has become on the Filipino who wasn?t even a very big name himself until he knocked out Oscar De La Hoya in December 2008. And to think boxing used to have a lot of golden boys around at once.
