Contributors: Luke Irwin & Nolan Howell
This Saturday night, one of the greatest pound for pound fighters in the history of combat sports will make what he claims to be his last walk down to the ring. That man will aim to leave professional boxing with 49 wins and no losses, equalling the record of heavyweight boxing legend Rocky Marciano. Once the arena empties and he is likely out making use of his exorbitant purses earned over nearly a decade, he will leave behind him a legacy filled with controversy and historic moments. Moments that are likely to stand the test of time, which is a near impossible feat in a sport with as history as rich as boxing’s.
Floyd Mayweather will likely wake up Sunday as boxing’s former modern lightning rod (most of those bolts received more than deservedly so). He will wake up a former champion of half a dozen weight classes and a draw that may not be surpassed in popularity for decades. He may wake up with those aforementioned 49 wins, many of those early 
victories highlighted by brilliant offense and the later years bookended by becoming one of the greatest defensive boxers ever. He will wake up having defeated the likes of fighters who stand on the same stratosphere, the Manny
Pacquiaos, Juan Manuel Marquezes, and Oscar De La Hoyas. He will wake up having defeated future greats, perhaps shutting the gates of stardom briefly in the face of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
However, as is the case in such brutal sports dictated by brutal punches and ugly, even unruly game plans, he may walk away with one loss that could forever change the meaning of words written before this by myself and many others. No matter the unlikeliness, Andre Berto comes in Saturday looking to sink a Titanic more than derail a train.
What does Berto have to do to dethrone the king who has ruled with a fist, though made of glass, that moves somewhere in between the speeds of light and photons? Where does Mayweather stand before and after this victory and what does his stepping away take away from and bring to boxing?
Q. Assuming Mayweather beats Berto, what legacy does he leave behind in boxing?
Nolan: Comparing modern boxing to anything from as late as the 50s is very hard, considering the difference in techniques, training methods, etc. Apples to oranges.
Mayweather will rank among the top boxers (anywhere from 1-5 seems reasonable) in the “modern” era of the sport, if you will. That being said, I think his reputation outside of the ring, his promotional tactics, and all of that tying to a big elephant in a room combined will damage him in the eyes of random sports talk hosts, thus spreading to the masses. Additionally, the inability to separate artist from art in this day and age seems to be becoming increasingly difficult and I imagine that gap becomes even smaller over time.
Still, for those who saw him, you no doubt saw a pound for pound great who mastered all the aspects of the game in the arc of his career. You also saw one of the most controversial boxers you will likely see in a long time and thus you may not see spectacles that take over social media and things of that nature for a long time. In my mind, Floyd is near the top, but the Internet and social media ages converging may damage his standing, which is unfair to the art, but more than understandable for the artist.
Luke: His legacy is that he’s the best boxer since Marvin Hagler, and probably before that. Hell, even if he loses, he’s still in the discussion of the greatest boxer ever. History has shown us that athletes who walk away on top are revered and their legacies are unassailable. Hagler, Elway, Barry Sanders, Gehrig, Dryden, so on and so forth. Mayweather will be the same. He’ll have a claim to being the greatest boxer, and even the greatest athlete of all time. I don’t like the man, personally, but what we’re seeing might not be duplicated in our lifetimes.
Q. What does Andre Berto have to do win if at all possible? What happens to Berto’s stock and Mayweather’s legacy should he lose?
Nolan: People have really tried to poke holes in Floyd’s resume ever since his ascension to being the most well-known boxer in the world. First, he was cherry picking opponents. Then, he was ducking Manny Pacquiao. When he beat Pacquiao, he was a coward for not giving an injured Pacquiao a rematch. A Berto win would ravage his stock and rightfully so, but I think it would be taken to the whole next level given who it is.
The only way I can see Berto taking this is making it super ugly and hoping that this is the fight where Mayweather’s speed finally hits the wall. It seemed as though he was losing a step in the Maidana fights, but for him to be good enough to still decisively Pacman is indicator enough that it would take nothing short of divine intervention for him to win. Maybe if he Maidanas him and fights dirty inside and grinds Floyd down? That seems like the likely strategy, but Berto is often coming into fights being held together by chewed gum and paperclips. Given his power, if he could corral Mayweather into the corners and against the ropes like the aforementioned Maidana and Miguel Cotto, there could be the slightest opportunities there.
However, I’m not sure even being granted a miracle would make Berto good enough to take this fight.
Luke: It isn’t possible. Listen, almost every combat sport legend has that one person, that one opponent, who gives them fits. For Muhammad Ali, it was Ken Norton. Nobody will ever argue that Norton was a better boxer than Ali, but Norton gave Ali tremendous fits, and Ali was the inferior boxer the majority of the time when they clashed. 
Shane Mosley had two. Mosley is one of the greatest boxers of all-time, but even though he beat Oscar De La Hoya twice, Fernando Vargas twice by TKO, and prime Margarito, he could never figure out Winky Wright or Vernon Forrest and lost to both of them twice. Matt Hughes is the second-greatest welterweight in the history of MMA, but he has two losses to Dennis Hallman, the definition of a journeyman, in about a minute…combined. BJ Penn was unstoppable and second to only Anderson Silva as the P4P king, until he ran into five rounds of tenacity that was Frankie Edgar, who beat him three times. Renan Barao is a hard-hitting, lightning-fast killer against anyone not named TJ Dillashaw, where he becomes a speedbag. Everyone has that one person who can give them fits for reasons unknown.
Maybe Berto is that guy, but I doubt it. Andre Berto is a fine boxer. That’s it. Fine. Nothing that he possesses is better than what Floyd has already seen. He isn’t as fearless as Gatti or Maidana, he isn’t as big as Canelo, he doesn’t punch as hard as Cotto, he isn’t as skilled as De La Hoya, he doesn’t have the craftiness of Marquez, he isn’t as brilliant defensively as Judah. Andre Berto, unless he has the boxing equivalent of a knuckleball, has absolutely nothing for Floyd Mayweather. I have no idea what he needs to do aside from throwing a spinning heel kick. Berto is a great technical boxer, but he’s going against the greatest technical boxer ever. It’s like running a high school guard against Steph Curry in an NBA three-point contest. You’re great in your domain, but this is the apex of the sport.
For shits and giggles, I’ll play along with the second part of that question and pretend that Berto has a chance to win, and does so. It helps Berto far more than it hurts Mayweather. If Floyd loses, then retires, it’s “ah well, time catches up to everyone, nobody can outrace the clock, Father Time is undefeated” so on and so forth. He’ll be cited along with Willie Mays falling down in center field with the Mets, Franco Harris as a 49er, Johnny Unitas as a Ram, Emmitt Smith as a Cardinal, etc…
But for Berto? HOOOO BOY. Every promoter on Earth should be pulling for Berto with every gasp of breath they have. Because if that happens, you have a ready-made superduperstar and there is bank to be made. Lots and lots of it. Andre Berto goes from someone the casual fan has never heard of to making the late-night rounds and being the lead story on CNN.
Q. Where does boxing go after Floyd leaves the ring?
Nolan: I think there are lots of possibilities for some good draws and having five or six good draws will keep the sport hot like it has been for the past year or two. I plan to expand on it in an article soon, but the obvious candidate is Canelo. Cotto will be a draw for a year or two, but he is fighting on borrowed time, in my opinion. I think Klitschko vs. Wilder could really be big under the right circumstances and Wilder winning would be spectacular for the heavyweight boxing scene in the U.S. Sure, it would end up being massacre after massacre in favor of Wilder if Wilder were to win, but an American heavyweight champion is a big rallying point that many could get behind.
GGG is a name that comes to mind and he has a lot going for him. Quirky personality with vicious style. Still, not completely sold on him due to the lack of competition he could have. There’s a good chance he pans out to be a draw, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he was a flop either.
Two long shots I’d like to see make it and see a small window for are Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez and, though still a few years down the road, Diego De La Hoya. With the right placement, Chocolatito could become a guy worth having co-main a major PPV. Size doesn’t seem to hurt drawing power in boxing as it does MMA and Chocolatito is a ridiculously fun fighter that could benefit from strategic card placement. De La Hoya is proving to be a very solid prospect that should be taken seriously and his volume striking should be a crowd pleaser. Also, he is related to some famous guy, so there’s that.
My final wish is that everyone sees the genius of Adrien Broner…and that he’d learn that he’s a better inside fighter and not Mayweather Lite. That is more of a fever dream of mine.
Luke: Premier Boxing Champions has done a wonderful job of making boxing viable all over the television landscape. Boxing will never die, it’s been a viable entertainment option for centuries. If Floyd leaves, there are still lots of boxers that can carry the mantle. My father, for instance, was a gigantic Evander Holyfield fan. He wants to pull for American heavyweights. Well, hello there, Deontay Wilder. Do you like lighter-weight punching machines like Ward and Gatti? We have Santa Cruz, Mares, and Roman Gonzalez. As far as a spectacle, is there anyone with Floyd’s charisma and personality? Probably not. Sugar Ray was starting to take off as Ali was winding down at that time, then Tyson captivated the world, and so forth. There will always be someone to carry the water in the personality department. Broner might be that guy, GGG could take it, Kovalev is a monster, maybe Wilder. Boxing will go on, but Floyd will leave a massive void that promoters will need to work their asses off to replace.
Adrien Broner can eat a large quantity of shit.
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