The Man Team Berto Fears....

Now if hes 6'1 what is paul williams at 147???

 

His team is afraid of Berto getting exposed before his big payday materializes.

 

I think Berto beats Mike Jones. I have not been impressed with him. He has size but thats about it.

 

Who's berto's mandatory?

 

I dont think there is enough bandwidth to list all the fighters Berto and his team are scared to fight.

 

Seluck Aydin

Berto is going to drop the belt and try to fight a JWW.

 

I hope he doesn't. Aydin is very hittable and not particularly quick in comparison. Berto can do a similar job to the Urango fight, lateral movement to keep him off-balance and not allow him to set his power-punches, flashy combinations and tie-up. Wouldn't be pretty, but he could take every 3rd round off and still win 9-10 easily and get a decent scalp.

 

the scene has a good article on the hbo created berto monster

Sometimes being good ain’t good enough. And sometimes the promise of big money ain’t big enough.

This is the conundrum of welterweight beltholder Andre Berto.

He is good enough to have a world title, but he has not yet beaten competition that would prove he belongs among those at the top of the division.

He is a big enough star to get paid well, but he is not yet notable enough to get the important fights he needs.

He is notable enough to be on the verge of breaking through, but he believes he is more of a star than he truly is and wants to get paid more.

That belief is what could keep him from breaking through, from getting that fight that would insert him among the top names at 147 pounds.

That recognition would get him the big fights.

That ability to get the big fights would get him the big money.

These are the calculations Andre Berto must make. These are decisions that are the consequences of inflation – an inflated standing perpetuated by HBO, resulting in an inflated sense of worth from Berto.

This is how Berto got to where he is now:

Berto turned pro at the end of 2004, a former Olympian seeing whether his speed would translate into success beyond amateur competition. He took the usual route for prospects with potential, fighting on Showtime’s “ShoBox: The New Generation” and ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights.”

And then he got the attention of HBO.

Berto, under the promotional banner of Lou DiBella, fought on undercards supporting other DiBella fighters. When Jermain Taylor faced Kassim Ouma, Berto started the broadcast, stopping Miguel Figueroa. When Paulie Malignaggi faced Edner Cherry, Berto kicked off the show with a drubbing of Norberto Bravo. And when Taylor was dethroned by Kelly Pavlik, Berto scored a technical knockout over David Estrada.

HBO had a likeable, good-looking, fast-punching prizefighter. Not only was Berto marketable, but he was also fighting in the star-studded welterweight division. He could be presented first as a contender, next as a titlist, and later as a star.

Step one: present Berto as a contender.

Berto stopped Estrada, a gritty trial horse who had lost a decision to Shane Mosley and taken Kermit Cintron to war, albeit in defeat. That was September 2007. Four months later, Berto stopped Michel Trabant, a former title challenger.

They weren’t big names, but they were enough for the World Boxing Council to install Berto in one of the two spots for a title belt that had been vacated by Floyd Mayweather Jr. That, and the WBC knew it could get a percentage of Berto’s HBO paychecks.

Step two: present Berto as a titlist.

Berto beat Miguel “Miki” Rodriguez, a dubious choice by the WBC for a title shot. With the win, Berto captured a major sanctioning body belt.

Step three: present Berto as a star.

The Rodriguez fight was Berto’s first HBO main event. From there, the network followed a golden rule of marketing, keeping Berto in the public eye. It paid him well – too well, many say – hoping that the investment would ultimately produce a lucrative attraction.

Berto out-pointed undersized veteran Steve Forbes on the undercard to Shane Mosley’s knockout of Ricardo Mayorga. Berto headlined in his next bout, an entertaining battle against former welterweight titlist Luis Collazo that was the only fight on that broadcast. And Berto was atop the card for his decision victory over junior-welterweight beltholder Juan Urango.

Build a record. Build momentum. Build experience. And then it becomes time to see if all that has been built can now stand on its own against a true challenge.

Berto signed to face Shane Mosley, a bout scheduled for January 2010.

Mosley was 38 years old but had regained the welterweight championship. He had not fought since January 2009 but had more experience, more speed and more power than anyone Berto had ever faced before.

The fight never happened. It was not Berto’s fault.

A massive earthquake turned large portions of Haiti to rubble, leaving members of Berto’s family in desperate conditions. Berto called off the fight to focus on a more important situation, then returned in April, stopping former 147-pound titleholder Carlos Quintana.

This is where Berto is now:

He is in nearly the same position as he was at this time last year. He is young (26 years old, turning 27 in September). He is undefeated (26-0 with 20 knockouts). He is on the outside in his division. The fighters at the top are Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. The fighters in the second tier were Shane Mosley and Miguel Cotto – both of whom are now competing one division up at junior middleweight – and Berto.

And Berto had another opportunity to face Mosley, but the fight did not happen.

“I’ve been trying to shout out a fight with Cotto, a fight with Mosley. A lot of these guys, they don’t want to do it right now, ” Berto told this scribe in an interview earlier this month in Montreal, where Berto was in town for the light heavyweight championship match between Jean Pascal and Chad Dawson.

“The Cotto people, they don’t want to do it right now at this point for some reason, even though I think that’s the biggest fight that everybody wants to see besides Mayweather-Pacquiao,” Berto said.

Mosley wanted the purse split for a fight with Berto to be split with 60 percent going to him, 40 percent to Berto, promoter Lou DiBella told Lem Satterfield of AOL FanHouse and ***********.

Berto wanted to earn the same amount as Mosley.

“Shane Mosley, of course he fought Floyd, his stock dropped [in defeat],” Berto said in Montreal. “Me coming off a win, I think it’s only right that we go 50-50. I don’t really think most people even want to see him fight now. I think it’s totally right to do it that way.”:tired

Mosley is facing Sergio Mora instead on a pay-per-view. Berto doesn’t have another fight set. His team is not interested in a mandated title defense against Selcuk Aydin, an undefeated Turkish fighter. DiBella told Rick Reeno of *********** that HBO wouldn’t buy Berto-Aydin. Berto’s team also apparently doesn’t want him to go overseas to face Aydin, who fights out of both Germany and Turkey.

That leaves Berto with, well… with what?

A few names are being floated for Berto’s next fight, tentatively scheduled for November: junior welterweights Andriy Kotelnik and Marcos Maidana, and welterweight Mike Jones. Kotelnik’s promoter, Don King, told *******’s Reeno that HBO isn’t interested in Berto-Kotelnik.

None of those fights would allow Berto to join the ranks of the welterweight elite. None of those fights are worth big money. He will probably get paid well nevertheless. Berto is managed by Al Haymon, who also guides the careers of numerous other fighters featured on HBO. Several boxing writers have criticized HBO for overpaying Haymon’s fighters, giving them paychecks disproportionate with their popularity.

Andre Berto’s title defense against Carlos Quintana on HBO earlier this year had 3,508 people in attendance, but only 972 paid, bringing in $105,759 in ticket revenue, according to the Sports Business Journal. Berto and Quintana were paid a combined $1.25 million, with Berto earning more than $1 million.

But because HBO has ordained Berto a star, he is being paid like a star before truly becoming one.

He is good enough to have a world title, but he has not yet beaten competition that would prove he belongs among those at the top of the division. A win over either Mosley or Cotto would’ve placed him at, well, the level of Mosley and Cotto, just below that of Mayweather and Pacquiao.

Berto says he would prefer a Cotto fight. One imagines, however, that he would’ve preferred a fight with Mosley instead of a fight with Marcos Maidana or Mike Jones.

Sometimes being good ain’t good enough. Berto has held a world title for more than two years. He has defeated two competent former beltholders in Luis Collazo and Carlos Quintana, and a pair of smaller men in Steve Forbes and Juan Urango.

Berto’s critics are growing restless. They want to see him defend his welterweight title against the best welterweight challengers, not against junior welterweights or lower-tier 147-pounders. They want to see a fighter who is getting the HBO spotlight and HBO money show that he deserves both.

But Berto has an inflated standing perpetuated by HBO. After earning as much as he has earned, he feels that his financial rank is as important as his competitive rank.

Other fighters have taken short money as an investment in their own future. Zab Judah famously earned only $100,000 for his rematch with Cory Spinks, a fraction of what Spinks pulled in. Judah knocked out Spinks, won the welterweight championship and pulled in bigger paychecks afterward.

With an inflated sense of his own worth, Berto isn’t willing to do such a thing. He brushed aside a question about taking less now for more later.

Sometimes the promise of big money ain’t big enough.

This is the conundrum of Andre Berto.

These are the calculations and decisions that Berto must make.

These are the tenets of Berto-nomics: pump up your stock, hold on until you can sell high, and hope that such a strategy doesn’t lead to the marketing crashing down on you.

 

SELCUK AYDIN might be the mandatory but he lost his last fight even though judges back in Turkey gave it to him:
ROUNDS 1 - 3:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blMZncZsx94[/ame]

ROUNDS 4 - 6:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W57cTtDRRWQ[/ame]

ROUNDS 7 - 9:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzJPU_5sVn4[/ame]

ROUNDS 10 - 12:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnQSJ2fn4d8[/ame]

 

I like Mike Jones, but he is FAR from ready.

 

Berto basically got no choice but to fight Jones cause that's who hbo wants him to fight. HBo also mention Maidana but Maidana will likely fight Khan in december and Maidana feels at 147 pounds is not his weight class in which he's right.