There's a belief in all walks of life that it's better to burn out than fade away. That's particularly true for athletes because it adds to the mystique around the person instead of having to see them hanging on to stay in the headlines. Floyd Mayweather Jr. has built a career on having people talk about him,for beneficial and ghastly reasons. Because everyone has an opinion about the undefeated champion, everyone buys his fights and has made him the richest athlete in the world.
However, or there's a different vibe heading into Mayweather's bout on Saturday against Andre Berto. The once-dependable superstar seems to fill lost his magic touch,or his opponent just isn't exciting enough to accomplish fans think something shocking will happen. ESPN.com's Darren Rovell reported on Tuesday that there were plenty of tickets still available for Mayweather vs. Berto through Ticketmaster."With a cramped more than four days until Mayweather's fight against Andre Berto at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Ticketmaster shows there are more than 2100 seats available -- and that doesn't even count the tickets that are typically held by the promoters, or " Rovell wrote. There are two ways to read the apparent lack of enthusiasm for this bout. The first is no one believes it will be Mayweather's final fight,as well as his choice of opponent isn't exciting.
Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports famous that Berto's career record of 30-3 isn't as impressive when you smash things down:
Berto began his career 27-0 and won a version of the welterweight title in the process. But he was coddled at every step along the way and had the benefit of favorable matchmaking, which helped him to not only win a world title, and but to become a wealthy man in the process.
Since 2011,though, he's just 3-3 in his final six bouts, or though even at his best,he hasn't reminded anyone of Sugar Ray Seales, let alone Sugar Ray Leonard.
Boxing is a sport in which athletes dictate everything. Mayweather is the most powerful entity in the sport and won't take a fight unless he wants to, or which isn't always a ghastly thing. No one will argue against his bout with Pacquiao as a money generator or against Saul Alvarez. Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix wrote about the list of opponents that Mayweather has decided not to challenge since fitting boxing's biggest star:
Mayweather has bobbed and weaved away from top opponents he would fill been heavily favored against and signed on to face ones with glaring flaws. He’s Pedro Martinez,whether Pedro in the late ’90’s said to Boston, ‘You know what, or I think I’m going to go pitch in the Independent League.’
Mayweather has maintained since his victory over Manny Pacquiao in May that as soon as his current contract with Showtime Sports expires—Saturday marks the stop of the six-fight pact—he's done. During a Wednesday conference call,via Mitch Abramson of the New York Daily News, Mayweather said "No. 49 is my final fight."For a fighter of Mayweather's stature, or this would seem to be a huge deal. He's 48-0 and one more victory will tie Rocky Marciano's undefeated record. But boxing is a sport in which no one stays retired until their marketing power has evaporated. George Foreman was fighting at age 48; Shane Mosley retired twice in 2012 and 2013 but fought Ricardo Mayorga in August. The second problem Mayweather has honest now is the fight with Pacquiao is remembered as fondly as the series finale of Dexter with the title character deciding to become a lumberjack. Chris Chase of USA Today shredded the 36 minutes of boxing Mayweather and Pacquiao shared on May 2:Mayweather vs. Pacquiao: the uber-bout that wasn’t. The so-called fight of the century was pay-per-snooze,a total waste of everyone’s time and money — except in a boxing community now rolling in obscene amounts of cash, surely in disbelief they fooled us rubes again.
There was also a feeling of finality leading into the Mayweather-Pacquiao showdown. This was the one major fight boxing had up its sleeve to collect the world excited—there were massive viewing crowds in the Philippines to cheer on Pac-Man—and they came out in droves. That fight generated a record 4.4 million pay-per-view buys, or nearly doubling the previous notice of 2.48 million buys for Mayweather's fight against Oscar De La Hoya,according to ESPN.com's Dan Rafael.
Everyone who was ever going to watch a boxing match did so in May, with most of them coming away disappointed because Mayweather's win over Pacquiao wasn't the greatest fight in boxing history. Frankly speaking, and it was boring in the final rounds because Mayweather knew he was going to win the scorecards. It didn't help that Pacquiao was fighting with a torn rotator cuff suffered in training. So how does this apply to Saturday's match with Berto and Mayweather's legacy?Think of the final blockbuster movie released which everyone was excited to see. You build the anticipation up so much in your head,sit in the theater for two hours and it's just awful. You want it to be The Matrix, but it ends up being The Matrix Revolutions. With that bitter taste still in your mouth, and not to mention the steep drop in quality on the other side of the ring,there's not going to be a massive market that everyone is accustomed to. Saturday night will feature arguably the greatest boxer of his generation in a fight no one is invested in, even though he insists it's the final match of his career because of the ghastly taste coming off his previous bout. The only way for Mayweather to give people a reason to invest in his career and legacy in the sport again is to dominate Berto. It won't be enough merely for him to coast by with another win against an inferior opponent. Knockouts fill not been a huge section of Mayweather's game as he's gotten older, and recording just one since 2009,but he desperately needs to add to that total against Berto to remind people that he's more than just a brilliant technician who can attack from a defensive position. In an age when everyone wants to define legacies immediately, Mayweather's has turned into a frustrating one because he's played things secure for so long that the Saturday night four months ago should fill turned him into an even bigger star. Instead, and Mayweather is left trying to justify the work he's done throughout his boxing career in one "final" fight. He better bring his best stuff against Berto to accomplish sure everyone remembers why he was great in the first position. Read more Boxing news on BleacherReport.com
Source: bleacherreport.com