Floyd Mayweather vs. Andre Berto

This Saturday's Floyd Mayweather vs. Andre Berto event takes place at the MGM in Las Vegas, NV and despite "Money" Mayweather's claims that it's the last fight of his nearly two decade career, there's much speculation it could be a flop at the box office. Mayweather, an undefeated 48-0 during his stellar career, is regarded as the best pound-for pound fighter in boxing today, but lackluster ticket sells seem to suggest that most fans don't seem thrilled to spend their hard earned dollars to see the conclusion of Floyd's career, and they shouldn't.

After the colossal flop that Pacquiao-Mayweather earlier this year, you can't blame fans for the lack of enthusiasm to see another Floyd contest live and it should be interesting to see how the pay-per-view numbers are for the Berto fight with a $65 price tag. The controversy that followed the mega fight just four months ago, including the report that Manny knowingly fought with a torn rotator cuff, probably hasn't helped sell another Mayweather contest to the public either. As I said after the fight, anyone that was surprised that Floyd didn't try to push the pace against Manny clearly hasn't seen him fight before or are completely clueless about boxing. Floyd beat Manny using the traditional Mayweather style and the intrigue for the bout was to see if Pacquiao could pressure Floyd, and do damage in the process. Manny did neither and it allowed Mayweather to coast to a rather easy victory. The collateral damage of the less than great bout was seen almost immediately when a group of fans filed a lawsuit, claiming they had been mislead because Manny didn't disclose the injury, which he would be required to do with the Nevada state athletic commission. At this point, the lawsuit has yet to be resolved, but the damage from the Mayweather-Manny flop could be a factor in the lack of sales for the Berto fight.

Mayweather has stated in interviews in the past that he's particular when selecting opponents and that led to many fans to claim he ducks the best possible competition to ensure his record remains unblemished, which seems to be the case considering that Andre Berto isn't being given a chance by many betting lines. Granted, Berto is a solid pro, but this match up follows the pattern of Mayweather opponents such as Robert Guerrero, Victor Ortiz, and others that were no real threat to him. Essentially, the general public isn't going to pay to watch another glorified exhibition fight, which is why Mayweather's PPV numbers dropped prior to the Pacquiao fight. The bottom line is, fans thought they were exploited when they paid $100 to watch Floyd play it safe against Pacquiao and most won't risk spending the cash to see another Floyd sparring session.

But, what about the conclusion to one of the most decorated careers in boxing? Why hasn't that been enough to hype the audience into investing into this welterweight contest? The answer is simply, Floyd made a career of being the villain and he hasn't endeared himself to fans so there's not really the demand for a glorious farewell. In fact, it could be argued that much of Floyd's drawing power during the prime of his career was more that fans wanted to see him lose than anything, but it probably didn't make a difference to him because it was still money in his pocket. Reportedly, Show Time actually lost money on a few of the Mayweather fights, as the revenue generated didn't cover his guarantee for the bout so again there's few that would spend the cash to salute Floyd during his exit from the sport. Some fans might go as far as to say the sport as a whole might be better without Mayweather because the five domestic violence charges on his record bring negative publicity to the sport.

For his part, Andre Berto has a win-win situation, as nobody thinks he's going to win so either he loses and gets paid a lot of cash or he wins and sets himself up to make more money in his next fight. All the Floyd shenanigans aside, boxing has done a lot to rebuild itself over the past few years, specifically since mixed marital arts started gaining popularity and the sport of boxing has some tremendous fighters. Gennady Golovkin, Sergey Kovalev, Ruslan Provodnikov and others had some great performances in recent years. Odds are, Floyd Mayweather will get an easy win on Saturday and if it's actually his last fight, it will be the conclusion of a spectacular career, but not exactly a spectacular person. Instead of a respectful send off from the audience, the lack of buzz for Floyd Mayweather's exit from the sport will prove that he can buy many things, but not integrity.