Andre Berto gave a stunning, in-depth insight into what it’s like to fight Floyd Mayweather and be outclassed
Floyd Mayweather only had one fight left on his broadcast contract with Showtime after he beat Manny Pacquiao.
The pound-for-pound king of boxing at the time delivered on his promise to win the richest bout in history and decided to select a less challenging foe for his final outing before retiring from serious professional boxing.
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Step forward Andre Berto.
Berto had been a welterweight world champion between 2008-2011, but then suffered three losses and was not viewed as a tough task for Mayweather.
It was a fight nobody had called for, but after answering demands to face Pacquiao, Mayweather was immune from further criticism.
In September 2015, he stepped into the ring with Berto and comfortably outboxed him for a wide unanimous decision victory.
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It proved to be his last serious boxing match as he retired at 49-0 and only returned afterwards to beat Conor McGregor and dominate exhibition bouts against novices.
While the Berto fight was not memorable for boxing fans, it was a career-defining moment for the man himself who has since spoken intricately about what it was like to share the ring with one of the greatest boxers of all time.
"He's very elusive," Berto told in a famous interview, "Very, very elusive.
"Me being in there with him - I was just so surprised at his age just how alert he was. Very alert. He thinks defence first while all of us would think offence first.
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"I was in great shape and I was just throwing, throwing, throwing.
"But he puts you in a place where he's so defensive and elusive and you're still punching and you keep swinging and you see him looking at you!
"He puts you in a place of, 'Okay, if I keep swinging too much, I'mma hang myself out there to get hit.'
"Because he's seeing, he's seeing all this."
Berto continued: "He's very smart at dictating the pace too. When I was in there with him, he manages his time.
"He looks up at the clock like four times during the round.
"He'll move around, move around, look at the clock, move around, move around, look at the clock, grab you, tie you up, look at the clock.
"Pop, pop - he'll hit you two or three times, just enough to win the round, and make his way up out of the round.
"Between every round I can see him trying to look - he's looking to see if you're breathing hard, see if you're getting tired.
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"I've never been in there with somebody that was so observant, very observant of everything that was going on.
"He kept looking to see if I was tired so I jump off my stool and go straight at him.
"He'll grab you and you'll hear him in your ear taking deep breaths.
"He's such a veteran and he just knows every part of that ring. He knows every little small thing so he doesn't have to work too hard.
"It feels crazy because it feels like he almost cons his way out of every round."
Concluding his remarks, Berto confirmed that Mayweather is not a power puncher, though insisted his shots have more impact than many realise.
"He's not a big puncher, but he's a sharp puncher," Berto said, "He's gonna get your attention.
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"If he was that much of a soft puncher - he's not a big puncher - but he's not just a Paulie Malignaggi or someone like that.
"He's gonna get your attention, he's sharp. He's not a big puncher, he's a sharp puncher."
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