Andre Berto, the Next Floyd Mayweather Jr.: Overpaid And Overrated

Now that the dust has settled from the stampede of casual boxing fans barreling toward the Andre Berto bandwagon, we can now begin to see the real picture.

Over the last few months, boxing forums have been inundated with bias rhetoric, insisting Berto deserved a shot at the P4P best Manny Pacquiao, at least more than Margarito did.

After his impressive win over Carlos Quintana in April of 2010, Berto had leaped from prospect to contender.

Lou DiBella, Berto’s promoter, insisted they would be looking for his next fight to be big. “I know that he wants a big fight, and I know that he wants the opportunity to have a defining fight.”

A big fight to prove he deserved his Welterweight Title and all the accolades he had received thus far. 

However, in true Floyd fashion, Andre Berto side-stepped every notable top 10 Welterweight and selected Freddy Hernandez as his next opponent. 

To add insult to injury, the President of HBO Sports, Ross Greenburg, has decided to deliver yet another undeserved accolade by making Berto the highest paid undercard fighter in the history of the sport.

HBO will pay 1.25 million for this bout as an undercard for the main event, Marquez vs. Katsidis on November 27, 2010.

Berto is 27 years old and to date has only fought two "C" list fighters in Quintana and Urango.

The last undefeated fighter Berto faced was in 2006, Jonathan Tubbs.

Who?

Tubbs was (7-0-1) when he faced Andre, but is now (10-6-1) and has not fought since 2008.

After all the talk, especially after your “in ring” challenge to Manny Pacquiao, you select Freddy Hernandez?

In August I took a really good look at Berto's career and where he was headed and went out on a limb by stating he was being rushed to greatness. Strongly arguing he needed a few more bouts before he would be ready for a Pacquiao or Mayweather.

Unfortunately, this is a step backward and does nothing to prepare him for the P4P best.

Al Haymon represents both Andre Berto and Floyd Mayweather Jr., but the parallels don’t stop there.

In 2004 the boxing world was clamoring for a Winky Wright, Shane Mosley & Miguel Cotto showdown with “Pretty Boy” Floyd.

Instead he delivered DeMarcus Corley, who just came off a loss to Zab Judah and Pretty Boy’s only fight in 2004. Then he went on to deliver bouts against Henry Bruseles, Arturo Gatti, and Sharmba Mitchell in 2005.

Mayweather raked in $3.2 million for his fight with Gatti as a main event PPV attraction.  The event drew 325,000 PPV buys.

Floyd can be proud of the influence he has had on the next generation of pugilists by instilling the depravity of money over merit. 

It’s clear to this writer that Berto is not interested in any real threats to his career. He will posture and state he is ready for all comers, but when they do step up he’ll implement rule number two of the Floyd handbook. 

Rule # 2 – Absurd Contract Negotiations.