The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of September 14

Forty-nine have tried...

Floyd Mayweather tied Rocky Marciano with his 49th win against zero losses on Saturday night in Las Vegas by easily boxing circles around colossal underdog Andre Berto.

Seriously, it seems that Mayweather has more belts in the above picture than Berto landed punches over 12 rounds of action that could easily have been confused for a movie clip stuck on an endless loop.

Nothing about the result or how we got there was unexpected, and Mayweather stuck to his guns in post-fight comments, maintaining that he will indeed retire and walk away from the fighting part of the sport to focus on his promotional company and its young fighters.

But should he?

We'll tackle that question, while also looking at the epic Mayweather vs. Berto undercard (not a shred of sarcasm), Thomas Hauser's potentially damaging story about Mayweather and drug testing, and Premier Boxing Champions' wins from Errol Spence Jr. and Adonis Stevenson on Friday night.

These are the hottest boxing storylines for the week.

Floyd Can't Step Away After Berto

Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Mayweather is among the most polarizing figures in boxing history, but, love him or hate him, he's the greatest professional prizefighter of his era and one of the all-time greats the sport has ever produced.

He's not TBE, but he's one of TBE. 

None of those statements should even be up for much in the way of legitimate debate. 

And if Saturday night really was the last time he steps foot into a boxing ring (not many seem to think it will be) then one more indisputable truth surfaces:

That's a damn shame.

Mayweather, whether as "Pretty Boy," "Money" or "TBE," has spent nearly two decades crafting his in-ring boxing and out-of-ring marketing persona. His fights were events, and whether you forked over your pay-per-view cash to watch him put forth another clinic or hoped his opponent was the one to finally shut him up, you always forked over your cash.

His commercial success and in-ring dominance are unparalleled. 

So for Mayweather to go out like that, with a ho-hum win over a game but terribly overmatched opponent, in a fight devoid of any drama (before, during or after) and with a result as pre-ordained as any WWE match (not literally, but you should get the point) would just be a damn shame.

It's unworthy of a fighter as great as he has been through 49 professional fights (tying Rocky Marciano) without a loss and largely without even many scratches or dings. He can't allow the last memory of him in a boxing ring to be slapping around Berto in a fight that was over the day it was signed.

And he can't leave No. 50 on the table.

Should the Undercard Be Better Than the Main Event?

John Locher/Associated Press

The answer to that question is "No," but this one certainly exceeded the main event in quality, excitement and fireworks, proving that it can be done.

Rocky Martinez and Orlando Salido picked right up where they left off in April and demonstrated that the human body can apparently withstand all sorts of hell inside a boxing ring. Not all rematches (particularly of Fight of the Year contenders) can come close to the hype, but this one was a worthy successor.

The only bad part was how horribly wrong the judges got it by calling it a draw.

Salido's body assault (you can expect Martinez to have a few rearranged organs) was vicious, and he definitely did enough damage and controlled enough rounds to deserve the nod by somewhere between two and four points. 

A draw isn't as bad as saddling him with a loss, but he won that fight without much question and should be a five-time champion.

Badou Jack successfully defended his super middleweight belt against George Groves in a fight that picked up after the early rounds were spent with a lot of jabbing and not much pace to the fight. It was a solid win for Jack in his first title defense and a bitter loss for Groves, who is 0-3 in title challenges.

And, last but not least, Jonathan Oquendo scored the lone upset of the night with a majority-decision win over former multi-time world champion Jhonny Gonzalez. 

Oquendo and Gonzalez looked like they were heading for a hell-on-Earth war in the opening rounds, where both men were sent to the canvas but instead settled into a grind-it-out affair that legitimately could've gone either way.

So it takes a big man to admit when he's wrong.

The undercard for Mayweather vs. Berto was outstanding, but that constant reminder served as a continuous gut punch throughout every second of the 36-minute "main event."

Thomas Hauser and the Mysterious IVs

JOHN GURZINSKI/Getty Images

Even a topic as sensitive as this one must be addressed, or we wouldn't be doing our jobs as journalists.

Legendary boxing writer and historian Thomas Hauser published a piece on SB Nation earlier this week detailing a host of alleged improprieties in the drug testing regimen conducted by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in regards to Mayweather's fight with Manny Pacquiao and other recent fights.

Let's summarize some of the key points.

Hauser details how on May 1 (the day before the much-anticipated Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight) agents from the USADA showed up unannounced at Mayweather's residence and found that he had received saline and multivitamins intravenously, a violation of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules, which the USADA is supposed to follow.

Mayweather's camp claimed that the IV was used to help the fighter combat dehydration. 

It's not the substances that are banned but the receiving of them via IV. 

WADA bans the IVs, in Hauser's words, because they can be used to "dilute or mask the presence of another substance that is already in the recipient’s system or might be added to it in the near future."

We're not touching that part with a 10-foot pole.

Read the article, assess the evidence and make your own independent judgment. 

Hauser further points out that the USADA did not inform the Nevada State Athletic Commission about the IV until 20 days after it was administered and after they had granted Mayweather a retroactive therapeutic use exemption (TUE), which was applied for on May 19 and granted May 20. 

Bob Bennett, chairman of the NSAC, was unhappy with the USADA for granting the waiver (the commission, not the USADA, has that exclusive right) and called its actions "unacceptable," per Hauser.

But he did a pretty quick turnaround, telling Showtime's Jim Gray on the Mayweather vs. Berto telecast that the commission was not planning to investigate and felt that nothing had been done wrong. That statement was odd, given how forceful and annoyed he seemed to Hauser and other journalists.

Pacquiao (who was denied an injection of a painkiller to his shoulder on fight night by the NSAC) hasn't commented, but his team is rightfully upset, per Dan Rafael of ESPN.com.

Rafael also details that both Mayweather and the USADA have denied any wrongdoing.

These are serious allegations, and it's important to note that a rush to judgment in these type of situations is always a terrible idea, but we now have a slew of questions that need to be answered. 

Has Errol Spence Jr. Shed the Prospect Label?

Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

Spence, a blue-chipper who represented the United States at the 2012 Summer Games, has shed the prospect label just a little under three years into his professional career.

He's climbed the ladder with remarkable speed and confirmed his status as a top-10 welterweight with a one-sided shellacking and stoppage of rugged South African Chris van Heerden on Friday night on Premier Boxing Champions.

This guy is a top-10 welterweight—not in a year, not in a few months—right now.

Maybe that's high praise, but Spence has earned every bit of it.

He has the poise of a fighter much older and more experienced (He's only 25 and has just 18 pro fights) and looks ready for the best fighters in his division. He's quick, precise and powerful, and he doesn't allow himself to get swallowed up in the moment.

Spence executes his game plan with the type of patient precision that you don't often see in young fighters with his overwhelming skills and has drawn favorable comparisons to a top-tier fighter whose last name might or might not be Mayweather.

Keith Thurman scoffed at the idea of facing Spence this early in his career when the fight was floated, and maybe that's not the play (at least right now), but someone like Robert Guerrero makes a ton of sense.

The Ghost is at the tail end of the top 10 at 147 pounds and remains a name who can present a good step up.

Sure, he might be slightly diminished after winning a war with Yoshihiro Kamegai and then getting decimated by Thurman, but it'd be a real good measuring stick.

Has Adonis Stevenson Run out of Options?

Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

Stevenson didn't have much trouble in dispensing of Tommy Karpency, a club fighter and the latest in a growing string of disappointing opponents for the lineal light heavyweight champion, in Round 3 Friday night on PBC in Toronto.

We learned absolutely nothing in the fight that we didn't already know.

There was nothing new here.

Stevenson gets hit more than he should (Karpency clipped him with a couple of awkward shots he should've picked off) but has tremendous punching power, particularly with his loaded left hand. 

Karpency, meanwhile, proved that he had absolutely no business jumping from fights held at racetracks and hotels to a shot at the recognized champion in the 175-pound division. He was completely outclassed, something we all expected from the minute this farce was announced. 

Stevenson spent his post-fight interview trumping his trademark bravado by calling out unified light heavyweight champion (and best fighter in the division) Sergey Kovalev. Let's just play devil's advocate and say that Stevenson (who fled to Showtime/Al Haymon rather than face the Krusher last year) means it this time.

Given his propensity to avoid tough matchups in favor of the Dmitry Sukhotskys and Karpencys of the world, that's a bit of a reach, but even if he suddenly does see the need to settle this simmering rivalry it's not likely any time soon.

Main Events (promoters of Kovalev) tweeted after the fight that a 50-50 split on HBO pay-per-view is on the table, but Haymon won't let his fighter cross the tracks. You can be sure of that.

So who does Stevenson fight next?

Surely they can't pick another fighter of Karpency's caliber, right?

No (we hope), but you should expect that it'll be someone like Lucian Bute, who represents a huge fight on paper in Canada but a terrible one in the ring given just how shot Bute has looked of late.

Kevin McRae covers boxing for Bleacher Report and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. You can follow him on Twitter @McRaeWrites.