Berto Uses Lopez to Suggest an Exciting fight with Maidana

0
934

Andre-BertoAs long as I have been following boxing the one golden rule I’ve learned is you never compare two fighters’ performances against a common opponent for an accurate accounting of what would happen if the two said fighters ever fought each other.

Example: Manny Pacquiao will beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. because Manny destroyed Ricky Hatton in the 2nd round of their 2009 meeting, but it took Floyd 10 rounds to get the stoppage. So by default of the common opponent equation, Pacquiao will beat Floyd.

That is incorrect and totally off basis. Don’t get me wrong, comparing common opponents has its place, but a more accurate accounting of how fighters will fare against one another is better achieved when looking at the larger scope of the resume. This includes who the fighters fought and when.

It’s just too irrational to compare fighters with the “common opponent equation” because you have to take into account so many things. Switching trainers is a factor, the prime of both fighters at the time of the matchup, where the fight took place (on the road, for example), and the circumstances, both professionally and personally, heading into the matchup. It’s just too illogical to be used as a precise form of measurement.

However, Andre Berto used this logic to suggest a fight with Marcos Maidana would be interesting based on their common opponent in Josesito Lopez.

Berto is coming off of a successful 6th round stoppage over Lopez last week in the main event of “PBC” on Spike TV. In an interview published on Thaboxingvoice YouTube channel, Berto spoke about the possibilities of a fight with Maidana, who scored his own 6th round stoppage over Lopez in June of 2013.

“I think it’ll be an exciting fight. I don’t know what round that he knocked Josesito out,” Berto said in the interview.

Berto was inaccurately informed that Maidana had stopped Lopez in the 5th round, but he was alluding to the fact that he got the stoppage before Maidana, or at least around the same time frame, and therefore suggesting that he and Maidana were even in some way.

Berto was asked if he was comparing his performance to Maidana’s, but he carefully, and truthfully, answered, “Yeah, but at the same time I really just wanted to take my time with him because I knew what he did to Maidana. He came out fast; he dropped Maidana, went to the body, and he hurt Maidana the first couple rounds he was up. I [saw] that, and I really wanted to put that in my game plan.”

Berto doesn’t want to get into the logistics of similar opponents he has on his resume compared to that of Maidana’s because Victor Ortiz squashes the logic completely. Ortiz defeated Berto in a classic slugfest on HBO back in 2011. However, Maidana defeated Ortiz in dramatic comeback fashion in 2009.

To completely abolish any and all logic behind this theory, we can continue to look at Ortiz. Ortiz beat Berto, but Berto beat Lopez, and yet Lopez stopped Ortiz in 2012.

Still, Berto-Maidana would be a great fight, and I would love to see it. Berto could’ve positioned himself in line for a title fight this year with his win over Lopez last week, but he’d probably be better off fighting Maidana. Of course, the fight won’t come with a title, but Maidana’s name recognition is at an all-time high after the misleading notion that he gave Mayweather Jr. all he could handle in their May 3rd fight last year.

Sure, Maidana found success that others have failed to achieve against the great pound for pound fighter, but he was never a real threat to give Mayweather his first loss.