Andre Berto: Floyd Mayweather Jr. Fight A Big Money-Loser, Says He Received More Than $4 Million

Floyd Mayweather Jr. calls hismelf “Money,” but according to Andre Berto, his last name should be “Loser,” because Berto is now claiming that his September 12 fight against the now-retired Mayweather resulted in promoters and Showtime — the network that held a six-fight deal with Mayweather — taking a major financial bath.

“I mean of course [they took a loss], because they have to pay him so much money,” Berto sais in a radio interview.

“They have to guarantee him a certain amount no matter who he fights. So they took a lot of losses in his past fights, because they had to guarantee him a certain amount.”

Mayweather was reportedly guaranteed a purse of $32 million for the fight, which is now reported to have sold as few as 400,000 pay-per-view broadcasts. The number has been reported as high as 550,000, but either way, the fight would be the least successful Mayweather pay-per-view since 2006 when he fought unheralded Argentine brawler Carlos Baldomir.

According to one estimate, the pay-per-view may have grossed only about $38 million, half of which is distributed to cable and satellite TV providers who carried the pay-per-view broadcast.

But Berto also says that his own reported purse of $4 million was far lower than the actual amount he received for fighting — and losing a lopsided decision to — Mayweather in what Mayweather insists was the final fight of his 19-year, 49-bout undefeated career.

“They keep talking about it’s $4 million. We got more than four, so I don’t know where they’re getting that from. But like I said my guarantee was a lot more than $4 [million],” Berto said in the radio interview.

While Showtime has not released pay-per-view numbers for the Mayweather vs. Berto fight, boxing experts believe that the network likely lost money not only on that event, bit also on four of the six events that Mayweather fought as part of his now-expired Showtime deal — his 2013 bout against Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero and both of his 2014 fights against knockout specialist Marcos Maidana, in addition to the Andre Berto bout.

Berto earlier blamed Mayweather’s defensive fighting style for the lack of interest in the fight, and in his recent interview with New York’s Power 105 he expressed disappointment that Mayweather continued with his defensive strategy in the September 12 fight.

“I was just really surprised, because I thought there would be more action. At the end of the day, when you’re in there and talking that talk, saying this and that, you’re (The Best Ever) and your last fight — the last situation that he had (with Manny Pacquiao) was pretty disappointing so I thought he was going to come with it,” Berto said.

Perhaps as a joke, following his “dance” with Floyd Mayweather Jr., Andre Berto told TMZ that his next project will be to try to get himself a spot on Dancing With The Stars.

[Image: Ethan Miller / Getty Images]