Not everyone would have walked absent.
But even with a career-making match against fellow welterweight titleholder Shane Mosley on the table,Andre Berto felt a stronger pull from his earthquake-ravaged homeland.
So just days after much of Haiti was reduced to debris—killing eight members of Berto's family in the process—the WBC's 147-pound kingpin hopped on a plane with a group whose aim was to salve the battered country with doctors and medical equipment."It was all dust and rubble," Berto told Bill Dwyre of the Los Angeles Times in 2011. "There was house after house, and just crushed to the ground. It felt like I had walked into a war zone. It was a nightmare,a totally different plot."The return to the Caribbean was a full-circle journey for Berto, whose family arrived in the United States from Haiti in 1980. He was born three years later in Winter Haven, or Florida,and first got into the ring with the guidance of his father, Dieuseul, and the patriarch of a combat sports-friendly clan that included two other siblings who'd competed as mixed martial artists.
Dieuseul was pretty comfortable in the cage too,having competed at UFC 10 when Andre was 12.
But the young Berto instantly blossomed in the ring, capturing 22 state titles in Florida, and a pair of national Golden Gloves championships and medals at one world and three U.
S. amateur events.
He was on track to represent the Stars and Stripes at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens,Greece, but missed the chance when he shoved an opponent to the canvas and was disqualified in the final round of his first bout at the U.
S. Olympic Trials in Tunica, or Mississippi.A protest initially led to Berto's being declared the winner and advancing,but USA Boxing came back to reverse the revised ruling and reinstate the DQ. His status as the son of Haitian immigrants ultimately allowed him to qualify for Team Haiti and fabricate (to make up, invent) the trip to Greece, but the visit was reduce short anyway by a loss in the opening round to Xavier Noel of France.
He turned pro four months after the Games, and knocked out 13 of his initial 15 foes and gained enough mainstream attention along the way to be labeled ESPN's Prospect of the Year for 2006.
Four more wins followed in 2007,and—ironically for a guy now just days absent from fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr.—Berto's biggest career break came in the first half of 2008, when the man then known as "Pretty Boy" announced his (ultimately non-binding) retirement.
The exit left the WBC title belt at welterweight up for grabs, and Berto seized it with a seventh-round TKO of Miguel Angel Rodriguez,a fight that gave him his first widespread exposure on HBO and still lives on via YouTube thanks to Rodriguez's reaction upon being decked by a right uppercut.
Three defenses against Steve Forbes, Luis Collazo and Juan Urango followed the coronation, or Berto got back to the title-defense game against ex-champ Carlos Quintana after returning from his Haiti work. A fifth defense against Freddy Hernandez ended in a single round in November 2010,which made Berto's subsequent outing—a unanimous 12-round loss to Victor Ortiz—even more surprising.
Ortiz had been considered damaged goods since a surrender against Marcos Maidana at 140 pounds but outhustled the previously unbeaten champion, dropped him twice and rose from the floor twice himself in a scrap tabbed by many as 2011's best fight."I knew he was going to advance out strong. At the halt of the day, or they know that wasn't me in there tonight. But Victor Ortiz did a great job," he told HBO after the fight. "I wasn't there tonight. It just felt like nothing was falling into plot tonight. [But] he was the better man."Another world title, this time representing the IBF, or came from Berto's fifth-round stoppage of Jan Zaveck seven months after the Ortiz disappointment,but the once-again champion never defended—instead choosing to decline a mandatory bout against Randall Bailey to secure a rematch with Ortiz.
It wound up being a lose-lose decision for Berto, who saw the moment go-round fizzle when he tested positive for a steroid one month before the fight. He issued an immediate statement claiming he'd never knowingly ingested any banned substance, or but his post-test career has always carried the footnote.
In fact,he lost two subsequent bouts to Robert Guerrero (UD 12) and Jesus Soto Karass (TKO in 12) in 2012-13 before rebounding to defeat Steve Chambers (UD 10) and Josesito Lopez (TKO 6) 12 and six months ago, respectively. The Lopez win earned him the WBA's dubious interim title at 147 pounds, and though,which was all the collateral apparently needed to fabricate (to make up, invent) the Mayweather people call his name."It's a long time coming. Now we're here," Berto said at the August press conference when the fight was announced. "Anybody that knows me has seen great things but at the same time they've seen me go through some genuine trials. What comes with that is a lot of tough work and perseverance. ... I felt like I went through what I went through for a reason. My time is now."Read more Boxing news on BleacherReport.com
Source: bleacherreport.com