By Rick Reeno
Las Vegas, Nevada - In less than two weeks, five division champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26KOs) will enter the ring for what he claims is the final fight of his professional career.
Mayweather will defend the WBC/WBA welterweight titles against two-time champion Andre Berto on September 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Showtime Pay-Per-View will carry the card.
But not everyone is happy with the match. In fact, there was a significant backlash when the fight was announced. Berto is 3-3 in his last six fights and hasn't been very active in the last few years.
Leonard Ellerbe, CEO for Mayweather Promotions, believes the boxing public would have been critical of anyone Floyd selected for September.
Ellerbe explained that in 2013 fans were calling for Mayweather to fight Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and Floyd faced him. In 2014, fans were calling for a fight with Marcos Maidana and Mayweather faced him. In 2015 it was Manny Pacquiao, and then Mayweather faced him.
Now the fans are demanding fights with Keith Thurman, Amir Khan and even WBA/IBO middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin.
Even if Mayweather fought all three, and won, a whole new list of potential opponents would be thrown at their feet, says Ellerbe.
“There comes a point in time where enough is enough. What more can you accomplish? ‘Go fight this guy. Fight that guy. Fight this guy. Oh this guy, he’s the next guy.’ Then he’s going to fight to when?," Ellerbe asked.
Ellerbe has come to realize that regardless of who they fight, or beat, Mayweather will always have his critics and some of them will always demand more. He believes that a fight with someone like Golovkin for example, would only open up the door for even bigger risks because a large number of fans are salivating to witness Mayweather's first defeat.
"Some of the fans won’t be satisfied until he says, ‘You know what? I’m going to do the unthinkable. I’m going to fight Wladimir Klitschko,’ ” Ellerbe said. "They said Pacquiao was the guy. Now it's this guy and if [Mayweather] beats him then it's that guy. You can't satisfy everyone. "