Exclusive with Andre Berto: Floyd Mayweather was my easiest opponent

Speaking exclusively to Sporting Post, former two-time welterweight champion and last opponent of Floyd Mayweather, Andre Berto spoke candidly about his time in the ring with ‘’Money’’ Mayweather - alongside his meticulous discipline outside of the ring. He also teased a possible comeback against British boxing legend Ricky Hatton and gave his thoughts on the ‘’Battle of the Billionaires’’ saga between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.

To be honest, I tell people that Floyd was probably one of my easiest nights. It's hard for people to understand it but when it comes to me, a tough fight is when it feels like I've been in a tough fight.

Floyd Mayweather was my easiest night…he conned his way through every round

AB: ‘’It's hard for me to say Floyd’s my toughest night. To be honest, I tell people that Floyd was probably one of my easiest nights. It's hard for people to understand it but when it comes to me, a tough fight is when it feels like I've been in a tough fight. When I’ve felt that power my opponent and the pain of it. For that fight, it was probably the cleanest I've ever been out of a fight. And the next day, a lot of fighters know the next day you're extremely sore, but I wasn't sore at all. I went to a pool party the next day. It was a crazy feeling because I trained extremely hard physically and mentally for that fight. But to go in there with somebody who was so calculated, that promoted the fight by saying he wants to knock you out, but then try and almost con his way out of every round.

“He's a master at stalling people. It doesn't matter how aggressive a fighter is, he's a master at stalling you, meaning that he can be right there in front of you and act like he's going to punch but just stall you, have you wait, then walk off the line and start it all over again. I've seen it happen to Canelo and Pacquiao and all these fighters.

“He was very elusive and observant, probably the most observant I've been in with. He was so comfortable. His feet were comfortable in every ounce of the ring. He knew where every corner of the ring was and where the referee was at at all times.

“He’ll look at the clock, see what the time is. He’ll hit you with one shot and take a walk. He’ll grab you and then I feel him taking all these deep breaths right here in my ear. Then he’ll walk on the back side of the referee all the time. Every time the referee comes to break us up, he’ll go on the backside of the referee, just so he can take a longer walk, just to continue taking time off the clock. In between rounds I can see him looking over his father's shoulder. He kept trying to look at me, just to see if I was getting tired, and every time I see him looking, I'll hop off my stool just to show like I'm ready to go. Very observant. He’ll watch me, the clock, the referee and observe every ounce of the environment. And just do enough each round. ‘’

Andre Berto at the 17th Annual Espy Awards

I think the fans will love to see an exhibition between me and Floyd Mayweather

AB: ‘’Nobody knows this but me and Floyd were talking about an exhibition. We even went to the point where we had conversations about it. We had the right people in place. And I brought a lot of big money guys to the table as well. Some things kind of fell through at the last minute, but it can always kind of circle back. Floyd is completely retired from the boxing side of things. But maybe on the exhibition side. I think the fans would love it. I think It'll be a fight that Floyd will definitely have to train for. I think in these exhibitions he's just having a good time. He's having fun. He can train for two weeks and do his thing. But for me he knows that he would have to do some real training.’’

These Youtubers have a lot more to gain than the fighters they’re facing, like with Logan and Floyd. It didn't matter how that fight went. Logan got so much more notoriety and clout from that situation. Whilst Floyd didn't get any at all. I don't think it damaged Floyd’s legacy but I think he took some shots that he shouldn't have taken.

Floyd no longer lets his exhibitions go the distance after being left ‘frustrated’ and taking ‘big shots’ from Logan Paul

AB: ‘’These Youtubers have a lot more to gain than the fighters they’re facing, like with Logan and Floyd. It didn't matter how that fight went. Logan got so much more notoriety and clout from that situation. Whilst Floyd didn't get any at all. I don't think it damaged Floyd’s legacy but I think he took some shots that he shouldn't have taken. Logan was so much more of a bigger guy, and he hit Floyd and he did get cracked a few times. The fight didn't really do anything for Floyd, it was just all for Logan. You have to understand a lot of these guys - it doesn't matter how much money these kids have, how much fame these kids have - for them it’s something about facing a world class athlete because they aren’t world class athletes. But if they get a chance to step in the ring with Floyd Mayweather, that's going to fulfill something.

“It’s the fight game and to fight a guy like Logan that was so much bigger. Floyd took a lot of big, big shots from a guy that’s 30, 40, 50 pounds heavier than him and all that stuff adds up. And I can tell after the fight Logan was so happy, he got a chance to go ten rounds with Floyd and Floyd was just standing there like ‘how did I let this kid go the distance with me and hit me with a few big ass shots’.

“I'm a fighter, I know, I can tell and I can see. I called one of Floyd’s guys afterwards and said ‘I can tell that he didn't like the situation’. I can tell Logan’s excitement because he just went the distance with Floyd, while with Floyd you can just see a little frustration. So when you see Floyd in these exhibitions, he's not letting these guys go the distance anymore. He’s stopping every one of them.’’

I would love to comeback, I have always had that burning desire to fight

AB: ‘’I have not officially retired yet and there have been conversations with Showtime and my manager Al Haymon, they've definitely been pressing me about it. Anybody that sees my social media they see I'm extremely active, I stay in shape.

“You always have that burning desire to fight. I think that us boxers are completely different from a lot of other people. Once you get that feeling of stepping inside of a ring with 30,000 people watching and millions around the world, It's hard to replicate that high.

“We've been in conversations for the last three or four years. It has to be something that makes sense, it has to excite me as well, because I've been to the top of the sport, I've made great money, I've made great investments. I don't really need to box again, but at the same time I want it.

“We've been in talks and we've slowly but surely come into a situation financially and opponent wise that we can probably make the situation happen. So we’ll see. If it makes sense, it makes sense and if it doesn't it doesn't. But if it does - we’re going to have some fun and get one more, maybe two more.

“It could be in the professional sense, but I've also got tons of offers about these exhibitions and those sound fun too. I got tons of offers out of Saudi Arabia and over here in the US too, Adrien Broner's for example. I'd love to do the Pacquiao fight. Me and Danny Garcia would be dope. Those are the kind of professional fights I'd like.’’

Mike Tyson was so relentless and in his prime. Razor Ruddock was a tall and rangy guy like Fury, and Mike Tyson just ate him alive. It’s hard to tell me, a strong Mike Tyson fan, that Fury could have beaten Mike in his prime because he was in shape, relentless, and he came for blood.

Mike Tyson would have beaten Tyson Fury

AB: ‘’Mike Tyson was so relentless and in his prime. Razor Ruddock was a tall and rangy guy like Fury, and Mike Tyson just ate him alive. It’s hard to tell me, a strong Mike Tyson fan, that Fury could have beaten Mike in his prime because he was in shape, relentless, and he came for blood. It would have been a great fight, but I think eventually he probably would have caught up with Fury. I don’t think Fury has enough power to keep him off of him. And Mike was so short as well, and Tyson is so tall, so if you got a guy like that, that's so explosive and so strong under you. It’s always difficult for tall fighters to punch down. But if you got a strong, powerful guy, with strong legs under you throwing these tough shots, it’s going be tough to deal with.’’

Mike Tyson’s Advice stuck with me after I won a World title

AB: ‘’I think I just won a world title and back then I was heavy, heavy in the mix, you know, I knew tons of celebrities.I’m out partying and he sees me at some event and there’s a lot of girls around me and cameras flashing. So he walked up to me and said congratulations, and he pulled me to the side and said: ‘don’t fall in love with this game because it's going to break your heart every time’. It always stuck with me. And just later on I got a chance to understand what he was saying. Things can go sour. It can definitely turn dramatically. It’s not going to last forever.’’

I would love to fight Ricky Hatton

AB: ‘’Ricky Hatton would be an amazing fight. I've always been a Ricky fan, I'd love that fight, tell Ricky ‘come on’. Hatton - we can do it in England, let's go. Tell Rick we can do it in the states but just to make sure the bag is right, but I think that'll be dope man. Me and Hatton, it's almost something so left field left that everybody would just be so surprised at something like that. That'd be huge.’’

McGregor-Mayweather was big, but everybody knows Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, that's just internationally, from top to bottom, and something like that will shatter every pay per view.

Mark Zuckerberg vs Elon Musk would be bigger than ‘McGregor vs Mayweather’

AB: ‘’I was just talking to Dana White the other day about this he told me that Zuckerberg versus Musk would break all records. Those guys are titans in their industry, worldwide. McGregor-Mayweather was big, but everybody knows Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, that's just internationally, from top to bottom, and something like that will shatter every pay per view. And in this new social media age that promotion would be just insane. That's breaking everything.’’

Floyd always had tremendous work ethic - He would party until 3am and then go to the gym!

AB: ‘’Floyd always had a tremendous work ethic, I think he was fighting from four years old. He always had great discipline. He came to watch me at the golden gloves when I won it, and he grabbed me and all my friends and took all of us to dinner.

“Even then I saw the discipline - everybody's drinking but he's not drinking. He's paying for everything but he's not drinking. We go to the club and he's buying a million bottles. Everybody is drinking. Floyd was in the club spending $40,000, it doesn't matter. You walk in the club and Floyd already has the club ready and set, so as soon as he walks in, they play the music ‘the champ is here, the champ is here’. They’ve got the fire sparklers, the bottles, the confetti going. He goes into his private section and you see 20 bottles come with the sparklers and he's at the front of the section, looking out at everybody, just to let them know the king is here. And then he wants to test who is going to buy more bottles than him. Just in case you guys want to think about buying more, he’ll get another 20 bottles. The whole deal. Everybody drinks, passes the bottles round, making sure everybody is having a good time. Make sure everybody knows but the king is in the building; there’s alcohol, women, you got this, you got that, but then it’s time to go, he goes to that back entrance. And the cars pull up and it just depends on how he feels. He's always been a night owl, even back then, he would hit the gym at three in the morning. And then on specific nights he will throw his shoes on and just take off. have all the cars behind and just run straight to the house, four or five miles. At 1am he had all his cars pull up and he had one of the guys just take his running shoes out of the car. He had his full outfit on, jewelry on, and he put his running shoes on, changed right there in the parking lot, and ran home.’’

Floyd’s undefeated record meant the World to him

AB: ‘’That's when I knew he was serious. He definitely takes it extremely seriously. Floyd has a super power, his undefeated record drives him. I believe he’s very insecure in a lot of other areas. But to be able to say that he's undefeated, that's what drives him, that's what that's what makes him train like an animal because he knows he can't lose that undefeated record. With as much shit he talks, and as much as everybody wants to see him lose, and he's had a lot of other pitfalls in his life, that's his thing that he has to hold on to. I mean, that's a lot that weighs on his shoulders, and that since he knows that he can't lose that. He knows that’s where his legend lies. That's where his ego of bravado lies, in that zero.’’

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