Who better to discuss what it’s like fighting Floyd Mayweather than the last man to share a ring with him for 12 rounds?
Andre Berto was on the losing side of the unanimous decision which brought Mayweather’s professional record to 49-0 in September, 2015.
The victory was a pretty routine one for Mayweather and in the wake of the fight, ‘Money’ decided to hang up his gloves until mouthy UFC superstar Conor McGregor coaxed him out of retirement for what will likely be the biggest payday of either man’s career.
To say that ‘The Notorious’ is entering the unknown would be something of an understatement given the fact that he has never competed in boxing before and he will make his debut opposite arguably the greatest of all time in Mayweather.
According to reports, McGregor enlisted the help of Berto to spar with him and prepare him for whatever tricks Mayweather may have up his sleeve.
But Paulie Malignaggi, the Irishman’s most recent sparring partner, has claimed that Berto has been turned off the idea of entering McGregor’s camp due to the ugly way that Malignaggi put an end to his sparring relationship with the reigning UFC lightweight champion.
"I was amazed at what a dirtbag this person is" https://t.co/Qr9IVCJI7q
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) August 9, 2017
Malignaggi took umbrage with the way that McGregor was portraying how sparring was playing out on social media and promptly left the Dubliner’s camp last week.
And, according to the former two-weight world boxing champion, McGregor’s tactics have resulted in fighters such as Berto suddenly becoming unwilling to help him out as he puts the finishing touches on his preparations for August 26.
“I spoke to Andre Berto. Andre was supposed to go there and box on Saturday, and he changed his mind after seeing what happened with me,” Malignaggi told Cagesiders, via Bloody Elbow. “Everybody already knew what happened with Van Heerden, now he’s doing the same with me too. When word goes around that somebody is like that, even in regular life, you start to alienate (people).”
McGregor previously pissed off South African boxer Chris van Heerden by posting footage of their sparring session last year, in a clip which van Heerden claimed was heavily edited to portray McGregor in a favourable fashion.
Van Heerden subsequently released footage of him landing on the Dubliner to prove that it was a back-and-forth affair.
People telling me Mayweather will have his hands full trying to land on McGregor -STOP IT! I respect McGregor BUT i ain't Floyd and i landed pic.twitter.com/gd4dFi3XUU
— Chris van Heerden (@TheHeat001) June 14, 2017
“He’s going to have trouble getting any help in boxing, because the sneaky tactics, the sneaky qualities that he has now can no longer be looked at as a coincidence,” Malignaggi added. “With the van Heerden situation, like maybe he didn’t know how the ethics work in boxing, maybe he still had to learn, or now that he has learned, everything will be okay.
“I think the cat’s out of the bag with Conor McGregor in boxing, now that he’s tried this again, with sneaky tactics. You spar, and let me put in sneaky pictures, or make sneaky videos in van Heerden’s case and let me spin it.”
