Floyd Mayweather, JR SHOCKER: He Will Not Fight Andre Berto or Karim Mayfield & Don’t Even Think about Gennady “GGG” Golovkin Either!
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By Travis “Novel” Fleming
Floyd Mayweather, JR., 48-0, 26 KO’s, created a stir recently when he announced that he’s considering Karim Mayfield, 19-2, 11 KO’s, or Andre Berto, 30-3, 21 KO’s, to be the opponent for his farewell fight in September. Truth is, there really are no stand out options for his September fight as there is no clear contender who has separated himself from the rest to be the most in demand opponent. Still, if you believe it’s going to be either of these two you’re nuts, and you’re even crazier if you feel his final opponent should be Gennady”GGG” Golovkin, 33-0, 30 KO’s. Floyd is just using the old trick of throwing out the names of weak opponents so that fans will be better receptive to whichever top welterweight he chooses to fight. He’s done it before.
You may dislike Floyd enough to hold the opinion that he chooses opponents that he has stylistic advantages over, despite him facing literally every style. You may even believe he doesn’t face his biggest threats, despite him consistently facing champions and the biggest names within his weight range. One thing you have to concede, regardless of how much you dislike the man, is that he always faces opponents that are coming off of a big win. Since Mayweather became the A-side, his opponents have all either been champions, someone who just notched a signature win, or a big name fighter that was in demand. While most top fighters have the occasional tune up opponent that’s coming off a loss, not carrying a world title, or a guy thats relatively unknown, you can scroll down Mayweather’s resume and you will notice that since beating Arturo Gatti in 2006, everyone he has fought was either coming off of a career high, they were a champion, or they were a big name. Mayfield and Berto do not fit this description in the slightest.
At age 34, Mayfield has never been a champion, he’s not even a semi big name, and he’s not coming off of a career high. In fact, he lost two out of three fights in 2014 to Thomas Dulorme, 22-2, 14 KO’s, and Emmanuel Taylor, 18-4, 12 KO’s. In his last fight at the end of 2014, he beat unknown journeyman Michael Balasi, 10-5, 7 KO’s, by unanimous decision over eight rounds. If you believe that Mayfield is even being considered for Floyd, you need to look up the definition of gullible. No relatively unknown fighter, that hasn’t even won a championship at age 34, that is coming off an eight rounder against a journeyman, after suffering back to back defeats, will ever get a Mayweather fight. Come on people, get real!
Andre Berto is a far better candidate than Mayfield, but his chances of landing a Mayweather fight are about as realistic as Oscar De La Hoya’s recent claim that he wants to launch a come back and face Gennady Golovkin in his very first come back fight. Andre Berto was once very realistically on Mayweather’s radar. He was an impressive, undefeated, young champion with speed, and power, holding the WBC belt that Mayweather vacated when he briefly retired in 2008. Berto held on to the belt until 2011, making five successful title defenses and establishing himself as one of the top ranked welterweights in the world. In April of 2011, he fought Victor Ortiz, at the time 29-1-2, 23 KO’s, and was expected to be named as Mayweather’s September foe if he were to get by the talented, and hard hitting, Ortiz. Ortiz fought the fight of his career and beat Berto by unanimous decision in the fight of the year for 2014, a bout full of vicious action including multiple knockdowns from each man. In losing his title, Berto would lose his chances at Mayweather, who chose to win his old belt back against Victor Ortiz in September.
Berto would launch a quick come back in September, immediately facing IBF champion Jan Zaveck, and winning in impressive fashion, retiring Zaveck, at the time 31-1, 18 KO’s, after five rounds to become a champion again, just five months after losing his first title. In May of 2012, Mayweather moved up to junior welterweight to face Miguel Cotto, at the time 37-2, 30 KO’s, for his WBA title, prompting the WBC to stage a fight between Robert Guerrero, at the time 29-1-1, 18 KO’s, and Selcyuk Aydin, at the time 23-0, 17 KO’s, for their interim title in July. Guerrero won, and signed to defend the interim title against Berto in November. There was a lot at stake in this fight, as the winner would be a likely opponent for Mayweather in May of 2013, should Mayweather return to welterweight.
Guerrero upset the odds and beat Berto by unanimous decision, in the process ruining Berto’s final chances of landing a Mayweather fight. Since then, Berto’s stock has plummeted even further, losing by knockout to gatekeeper Jesus Soto Karass, at the time 27-8-3, 17 KO’s, and taking a year off to regroup. He returned and won a decision over journeyman Steve Upsher Chambers, at the time 24-3-1, 6 KO’s, in September of 2014, and followed that up with a March 2015 TKO over gatekeeper Josesito Lopez, at the time 33-6, 19 KO’s. He looked to be just a shell of himself in both bouts. Berto twice had a legitimate chance of landing the big payday against Mayweather, he just had to notch one victory in both cases and he was all but guaranteed the spot. Now, he’d have to fight, and look impressive, in beating a top welterweight to even be seriously considered. Mayweather fights guys coming off of big wins, has since 2006, it’s his modus operandi, Berto hasn’t had one big win period, he failed against the only two foes that would have been considered signature wins. Lately, Berto has struggled against a gatekeeper, before that he looked unimpressive against a journeyman, before that he took a year off because he was knocked out by a gatekeeper, before that he lost to Guerrero.
His last shining moment was in 2011 against Jan Zaveck. If you believe Mayweather is going to fight a guy that hasn’t had a significant win since 2011, you’re losing it.
The only reason Berto and Mayfield are being mentioned by Mayweather is to gain more universal acceptance for whichever top welterweight contender gets the call. Floyd knows that people are going to complain no matter which top welterweight he chooses because none of the welterweights have established themselves as the best of the bunch. None of them have been willing to fight each other to emerge as the logical big money opponent, so there’s between three and five welters who are all equally as deserving, or undeserving. No matter who gets picked, supporters of the other contenders, Floyd’s legions of fanatic haters, and Skip Bayless are going to call it a cop out. By throwing out names like Berto and Mayfield, he will fool a lot of critics into a sense of relief when he picks a top contender, even if it wasn’t their favorite choice. Those that believe he will fight Berto or Mayfield, must have short term memories because he’s done this before on several occasions to gain acceptance for an opponent that, although a top contender, wasn’t exactly someone fans were demanding.
Before he fought Victor Ortiz, there was rumors of him fighting an old blown up Erik Morales. Before his return from retirement to fight Juan Manuel Marquez, there were rumors of him fighting Ricky Hatton’s little brother Matthew Hatton. Prior to announcing his fight with Guerrero, there were rumors of him fighting Paul Spadafora. There have been several other examples of Mayweather employing this tactic. Don’t worry fans; there is no chance in hell that his last opponent will be Mayfield or Berto.
The two most likely top welterweights to land the big money fight are British rivals Amir Khan, 31-3, 19 KO’s, and Kell Brook, 35-0, 24 KO’s. If they fought each other, the winner would have been all but guaranteed the big money fight, but instead of fighting each other or any other top welterweights, Brook whooped two no hopers, while Khan struggled with a cherry pick gone wrong against feather fisted Chris Algieri, at the time 20-1, 8 KO’s. Brook is the IBF champion, which helps his case as he has the only major belt at 147 lbs that doesn’t belong to Mayweather. Brook’s problem is that he hasn’t fought a high level of opposition, notching only one A-level victory in his career over Shawn Porter, at the time 24-01, 15 KO’s, and one B-Level win over Vyacheslev Senchenko, at the time 34-1, 23 KO’s.
His last two fights have been “play it safe” fights at home against C-level guys, which isn’t exactly creating demand for him as a Mayweather opponent. If he were to have faced Keith Thurman, 25-0, 21 KO’s, and won, he would be the only choice for Mayweather. Khan is easily the most accomplished of all the potential opponents for September, he has had the best career, the best wins, and has fought several top tiered opponents. Khan is also by far the biggest name out of the welterweight contenders, so being that he’s the biggest name, and the most accomplished, you would think he would be the logical choice, but impressive recent performances have generally been high on the list of what Mayweather looks for when choosing an opponent, and Khan looked very underwhelming against Algieri. He was rocked several times, and hasn’t been fighting a high level of opposition since his 2012 KO loss to Danny Garcia, 30-0, 17 KO’s.
Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia are some other options being considered. Both are undefeated, and talented, but Thurman has yet to beat a top contender, or an A-level fighter. He looks the part, and might be a special talent, but because he is choosing to play it safe instead of fighting the other top contenders, he is doing nothing to earn the fight, and Mayweather would be criticized for fighting a “green”, and unproven, fighter. Garcia has some high quality wins, he’s undefeated, and he’s a got a name, but since his KO of Khan, and his arse whooping of Lucas Matthysse, at the time 34-2, 32 KO’s, he has won controversial decisions over Mauricio Herrera, at the time 20-3, 7 KO’s, and Lamont Peterson, at the time 33-2-1, 17 KO’s, where many observers had him losing. He’s scheduled to face Paulie Malignaggi, 33-6, 7 KO’s, in early August, so Mayweather will probably not want to risk choosing Garcia in case he gets cut, or loses!
All four of these welterweight contenders have been trying to “not lose” their way to a Mayweather fight, rather than beating each other to earn in. For this reason, no matter who Mayweather chooses, there is no argument that the chosen one is any better, or worse, than the other options. Throw Shawn Porter in the mix too, he’s coming off of a career high in dominating Adrien Broner, at the time 30-1, 22 KO’s, but his loss to Brook makes it hard to argue he is a better choice, especially with Brook holding the IBF belt.
There is no way that Mayweather’s September opponent isn’t one of these five equally deserving/undeserving contenders: Amir Khan, Kell Brook, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, or Danny Garcia. Whoever it is, it’s a respectable farewell fight for a man that’s almost 40, fighting above his weight, and coming off of the biggest fight of his career. It’s a respectable way to walk off into the sunset, although I suspect there will be a number 50 opponent in May or September of 2016. If you don’t accept one of these guys for an old Mayweather, who is only fighting on to fulfill his contractual obligations, then you are being an unrealistic critic. The welterweight champ facing facing a top welterweight contender is A-OK, and nothing more should be expected.
There are some people out there that want Mayweather to lose so badly, that they want the former super featherweight to face an elite natural middleweight with hopes that if he does, it will be too much for a Mayweather that’s pushing 40 with retirement on his mind.
These people create boogeymen, then change to a new one when Mayweather beats them. They did it with Canelo, they did it with Pacquiao, and now that there’s no one within his weight class, or even one up, they are going all the way to middleweight to find the new man that Mayweather is “running from”. They are expecting Mayweather at 38, in his “final” fight, to face an elite middleweight champion, in his prime, that punches as hard as many heavyweights. This is beyond ridiculous, Mayweather turned pro at super featherweight, 130 lbs, and fought more fights in that class than any other. Golovkin was fighting at 165 lbs as an amateur in his early twenties all the way to his first pro fight. That’s a 35 lb difference, which is absolutely too much. People point to welterweight greats of the past going up to middleweight to face the champion as a reason that Mayweather should fight GGG. Welterweight greats like Sugar Ray Leonard did do this, but he was much younger than Floyd and naturally much bigger. Leonard started at 147 lbs, and fought the vast majority of his fights there, meaning he is naturally 13 lbs apart from Marvin Hagler who turned pro at 165 lbs, whereas Floyd started naturally 35 lbs lighter than GGG.
Floyd is a small welterweight who is already maxed out in weight. I challenge you to find a 38 year old who has jumped two weight divisions to fight a champion that started out 35 lbs heavier in the entire history of boxing. You won’t find one, and that’s why Golovkin is a ridiculous choice to even consider. Golovkin will be a great middleweight champion, let him deal with his division while Floyd goes out with class by beating a top contender in a division that he’s already undersized for.
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