So, this is it for Floyd Mayweather Jr, or so they say.
Step up now because it is your last chance to see Money May in the ring. Buy those ringside tickets or find US$75 somewhere that you did not spend on Ronda Rousey to watch Mayweather and Andre Berto dance about from the comfort of your own living room.
The fighter who has made himself insanely rich by conning people into paying to watch him on TV is at it again. The promise this time is that it is his last time, or at least until Mayweather figures there are still enough rubes out there who will buy another one next spring.
It was not enough to pocket US$220 million for a fight against Manny Pacquiao that could never live up to the hype that preceded it. Mayweather has jets to fuel and cars to buy and, really, who could not use another US$30 million or so?
This could have been a fight on free TV, something of a payback for those who felt shortchanged for the US$100 they paid to watch the snoozer against a surprisingly passive Pacquiao. This should have been a fight on free TV, but there is a few extra million to be squeezed out on pay-per-view and once again, greed got in the way.
At least those buying the Pacquiao fight had an excuse. They thought Pacquiao legitimately had a chance, ignoring the fact that his skills had deteriorated badly in the five years he had been chasing a fight with Mayweather.
There is no pretending that Berto is much of a challenge. He has lost three of his past six fights, two of them to fighters that Mayweather easily beat. About the best thing anyone in the promotion can say about Berto is that he is aggressive, and may actually try to hit Mayweather.
That was reflected at the Westgate LV sports book on Wednesday, where Mayweather was a staggering 40-1 favorite. Not one bet had been placed, even with the chance to reap a small fortune should Berto somehow find a way to win.
That is all on Mayweather. He handpicks his opponents, and for this fight he passed over England’s Amir Khan and Keith Thurman, among others who might actually give him a fight. For a fighter who believes he is the best ever, it is an odd and anti-climactic way to end a career, assuming that career is actually ending.
Still, there might be reasons to buy this pay-per-view. This is boxing, after all, a sport where the bizarre sometimes seems normal.
Such as:
‧ Mayweather forgets to tie the laces on his boxing shoes and trips while walking into the ring, hitting his head on Justin Bieber’s microphone. By the time he can think clearly again, Berto is celebrating a first-round knockout and wondering if Mayweather can make him a deal on a used Bugatti.
‧ Mayweather’s usual pedicurist calls in sick the morning of the fight, and the replacement digs a bit too deeply into his big toe. Mayweather tries to stick and move, but is so hobbled that he cannot run at all. Berto wins a unanimous decision, then pops Bieber in the nose just for good measure.
‧ Fed up with watching bad fights from the corner, Floyd Sr urges his son to trade punches with Berto no matter what happens.
“Forget what I said about people not knowing anything about boxing,” he tells him. “You need to give them a good show at least once.”
OK, so maybe there really is not a way for Berto to win. Maybe boxing fans should just treat this for what it is — a glorified exhibition that will make Mayweather even more millions while completing his six-fight deal with Showtime and making him a free agent should he decide — as most assume he will — to fight on at some point.
It will also put him in the conversation with Rocky Marciano, the heavyweight champion who retired at 49-0 in 1956. That is something that matters to Mayweather, if only because he truly believes — and the sycophants around him keep telling him — that he is the greatest fighter ever.
That is preposterous on a number of levels, but let Mayweather believe what he wants. He has earned that right, winning every one of his 48 fights since turning pro 19 years ago.
Boxing fans, though, have a few rights of their own. And on Sept. 12 they would be wise to exercise them by resisting the urge to reach into their wallets to watch this stinker of a fight.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier