Mayweather vs. Berto Round by Round: Highlights and Key Moments of the Fight
In a fight that was textbook Floyd Mayweather Jr., the pound-for-pound king pushed his perfect record to 49-0 on Saturday night, defeating Andre Berto by wide margins (117-111, 118-110 and 120-108) on all three cards in a completely one-sided unanimous decision.
Like many of Mayweather's fights, this one lacked much in the way of dramatic movement. Mayweather established control of range and tempo from Round 1, and from there, one round mostly blended into the next.
On Twitter, Ring Magazine stated what many observers were no doubt thinking:
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Berto threw the first jab in Round 1, but like so many of the jabs he would attempt over the course of the night, it was thrown from well out of range. Within the first minute of the fight, Mayweather was already connecting with jabs to the body and head, as well as hooks upstairs.
Round 2 was a frustrating game of chase for Berto. His offensive futility continued in the third round. At one point, Showtime's Al Bernstein noted that the challenger had landed just one out of his first 19 punches. Mayweather, meanwhile, was landing nearly every punch he threw.
He landed two heavy scoring punches in the fourth round. At about the midway point of the round, he connected with a lead hook. Inside the final minute, he jolted Berto with a right.
Berto continued his ineffective aggression in Round 5, even receiving a warning for a low blow. Round 6 was among the busiest offensive rounds of the fight for Mayweather, while Berto managed to land one of his few good punches during the fight, a stiff left hand.
Berto landed another good left with about 20 seconds left in Round 7, but Mayweather responded with his own scoring flurry to negate it on the cards. Round 8 was yet another frame filled with Berto chasing Mayweather and making no significant progress at cutting off the ring.
Round 9 was arguably Berto's best round, and he won it on two of the scorecards. I consider that generous scoring, but Mayweather did spend most of the round playing defense.
The so-called "championship" rounds from 10 through 12 carried nothing in the way of meaningful drama. Berto continued to fire away with his jab, mostly from out of range and with no variation in the speed, making it easy for Mayweather to potshot him at will.
The jawing back and forth between the two fighters did pick up a bit in Round 10. Unfortunately, the elevation of verbal action was not matched by an increase in fistic action.
Prior to Round 11, Berto's trainer, Virgil Hunter, told him the fight was "close" and he was "only down a round." That could be viewed as one of the highlights of the fight—it was a display of grandiose optimism.
Probably the biggest action of the fight came inside of the final minute of Round 12. Mayweather caught Berto with a jolting uppercut and flurried aggressively. Mayweather rocked Berto one last time with 20 seconds left in the round and then spent the last seconds of the fight performing a victory dance.
Like many masterpieces, this fight was a case of being more impressive in its totality than in the individual parts. Mayweather once again showed that he is among the elite defensive fighters of all time and an amazingly accurate puncher, landing 68 percent of his power punches in the fight.
For those who idolize Mayweather, this was yet another example of his greatness. For his detractors, it will be one last chance to accuse him of being "boring" and a "cherry picker."
For good and for bad, it was exactly the fight so many observers expected to see.
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