Floyd Mayweather’s hype train is reaching the end of the line

Andy Lewis 08:53 06/08/2015
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  • Floyd Mayweather will fight Andre Berto in Las Vegas on September 12.

    A side from being an easy win, the mind boggles as to the reasons why Floyd Mayweather has selected Andre Berto to be his 49th victim. 

    But, frankly, who cares? Mayweather doesn’t care about boxing, fans of boxing, the media or any aspect of the sport which has made him the richest athlete in the world.

    He says it will be his last fight, but it won’t. Number 50 will be next May once he’s done with a few months of faux retirement. 

    But at this point, who apart from the die-hard Floyd fans isn’t counting the days until we see the back of him? 

    The Berto fight is purely a business transaction. Another number on the record, the last fight of his Showtime contract chalked off. There are so many better qualified and more deserving candidates from 140-154lbs that it’s a job to compile a list. But anyone still feeling let down by Mayweather’s choices of opponent or the way in which he conducts himself is a fool, a glutton for punishment. 

    Championship boxing should be top-level sport and top-level sport requires a degree of competition. Here we all know the result. It’s a sham and hopefully as few as possible choose to watch it. 

    Mayweather is transitioning to retirement and he may as well have hung up the gloves already. He may still be boxing’s biggest name, but as active fighters go, he is as irrelevant as it gets. 

    And with some major highlights still to come in 2015, it really is quite easy to ignore this debacle. Instead, fight fans should be interested in Gennady Golovkin versus David Lemieux in a middleweight unification bout between two of boxing’s pound-for-pound biggest punchers this October. 

    – Boxing: Unbeaten Mayweather names Berto as September foe
    – FIGHT CLUB: Ronda Rousey in class of her own at UFC190
    – INTERVIEW: Khan – Mayweather wants 50 but I'd make sure he's 49-1

    They should be excited about Miguel Cotto versus Saul Alvarez invoking the age-old Puerto Rico/Mexico rivalry later this year. 

    They should be intrigued by potential match-ups in a stacked welterweight division full of young, hungry and classy operators all shunned by the pound for the pound king. Forget the apologists telling you he has earned the right to fight who he wants, that’s absolute nonsense and only shows how far he has devalued his sport. 

    The Mayweather era is limping to an inglorious finale and the sooner it is over, the better.

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