Floyd cruises in final bout
LAS VEGAS — All week, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and his minions promised it was the last time Mayweather would do various fight activities.
Last press conference. Last weigh-in. Last walk to the ring. Last pre-fight meal. Last time he was announced, etc.
Mayweather was lacing up the gloves for the last time on Saturday, everyone insisted.
If it was his swan song, then what fans witnessed at the MGM Grand was the same thing they saw in May or September and before that.
Mayweather picked apart a carefully selected opponent, in this case heavy underdog Andre Berto, using his hand and foot speed and ring IQ to win an easy unanimous decision to equal Rocky Marciano’s mark of 49-0 before an announced crowd of 13,395.
Judges Dave Moretti (117-111), Steve Weisfeld (118-110) and Adalaide Byrd (120108) all had Mayweather winning easily and retaining his welterweight titles.
If it was the final fight of his soon-to-be Hall of Fame career, then Mayweather (490, 26 knockouts) went out in style, showing little slippage at age 38.
“You got to know when to hang it up,” Mayweather said in the ring afterward. “I’m close to 40 years old. I’ve been in the sport 19 years, been a champion 18 years. Lots of records. I’m leaving the sport with all my faculties. I’ve accomplished everything. I let the fans rank me (in history).”
Mayweather’s accomplishments often get overshadowed by his history of arrests for domestic violence against women and his money-loving persona.
But there’s no denying his genius in the ring.
He is a five-division world champion, a world champion 12 times over and is a lineal champion in four weight classes. He also revolutionized the way boxers are marketed and paid.
In his previous five fights, he had produced roughly $750 million in pay-perview receipts and nearly 10 million PPV buys, according to Showtime boxing boss Stephen Espinosa, whose six-fight deal with Mayweather expired on Saturday.
Mayweather’s guaranteed purse was $32 million while Berto collected $4 million. It was easy money. Mayweather controlled the first round with his hand and foot speed while Berto looked slow in comparison, unable to keep up.
Mayweather’s gloves touched the canvas in the third but it was because he tripped on Berto’s foot while avoiding a punch.
Berto started the fourth aggressively, throwing more punches and trying to pin Mayweather on the ropes, but he never seemed to land anything flush.
Mayweather appeared to buckle Berto with a right behind the ear, also in the fourth, but Berto recovered nicely.
Mayweather attacked Berto’s body in the sixth, landing a series of whipping shots while Berto landed a stiff jab early on.
Mayweather told his corner after the ninth that he had hurt his left hand, but it didn’t seem to affect him.
In the 11th, as Mayweather dazzled the crowd by making Berto miss several straight shots, he waived his hands, smiled and shuffled his feet, imploring the fans to get into it. He was having fun.
As the final seconds of the 12th ticked away, Mayweather danced backward, looking at the crowd.
It was a routinely chaotic week for Mayweather.
Just as Mayweather was waxing poetic at his final press conference on Wednesday, a story dropped from noted author and HBO consultant Thomas Hauser accusing Mayweather of receiving a large infusion of saline and vitamins after the weigh-in for his fight with Manny Pacquiao in May that was prohibited under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) guidelines.
Thousands of tickets remained available during the week. The upper-level bleachers were removed in the arena, eliminating around 2,000 possible seats to accommodate a smaller crowd.
Berto, who was 3-3 in his last six fights, was a 50-1 underdog when the fight was first announced. On Saturday, those odds had dropped to 18-1. They may as well have been 100-1.