By Radio Rahim
Former four division world champion Roy Jones Jr. has no issues with Saturday's Showtime Pay-Per-View headliner, which is going to feature Floyd Mayweather Jr. defending his WBC/WBA welterweight titles against Andre Berto at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Berto is viewed as a huge underdog in the contest. Going 3-3 in his last six fights and coming back a year ago from major shoulder surgery, very few people - if anyone - is picking him to pull off an upset.
The critics have jumped all over the fight, because Mayweather is stating that he plans to retire after Saturday night.
Jones feels Mayweather has contributed so much to the sport in the last 19 years, that he should be allowed to go out on his own terms.
"I don't give him any criticism, because the way Floyd has been doing things - he's done so much for boxing, made so much money for the sport, brought so much more attention to the sport from people who really weren't interested in boxing - you can't criticize a man on who he picks to fight," Jones told BoxingScene.com.
While many are expecting the fight to be a mismatch, Jones says there is a possibility that we might be in store for a very exciting contest - if the Berto of old enters the ring. But if the same Berto that we saw in the last three fights is present, Jones predicts a one-sided domination by the champion.
"A lot of people think it's an easy victory, but you can never count Berto out. Berto is a guy who loves to win. Berto had a situation in the Olympic days when a guy beat him and he got mad and [went after] the guy after the decision. Berto is a guy who has win in his heart," Jone said.
"Now can he go back to his old self and be the old Berto that we used to see? That remains to be the question. If that Berto returns, we can get our money's worth in the fight because it's going to be a good fight. If that Berto doesn't return and the Berto that we've been seeing in the last three fights shows up, it's going to be a whitewash."
