According to an old colleague of mine, WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto became a promotional and managerial free agent shortly after his rather easy 1st round stoppage of Freddy Hernandez this past Saturday. Citing a source "close to the athlete," Berto is said to be "entertaining offers on both fronts." For those that were unaware, Berto's career, up until this point, has been carefully guided by promoter Lou DiBella and manager Al Haymon, both of whom have close ties to HBO. I have to admit, thus far, they've done a masterful job of securing generous paydays for Berto, despite the subpar competition he's faced since first capturing the vacant world title back in June of 2008, so why he would want to part with them now is a bit of a mystery to me.
In the past four years, with the help of Haymon and DiBella, Berto has fought on HBO at least 10 different times and has built up a pretty healthy bank account doing so, making at least six figures for each and every one of those fights. In his last bout, Berto was paid a whopping $910,000 to defend his title against 10th-ranked contender Hernandez. He barely broke a sweat in the 2 minutes and 7 seconds the fight lasted. For a guy who has yet to face a top fighter in his own division and who can barely draw a crowd in his own backyard (just 972 fans bought tickets to watch Berto defend his title against Carlos Quintana at the BankAtlantic Center, in Sunrise, Florida earlier this year), that's not a bad gig. You have to wonder why Berto would even bother entertaining offers when he's already got the best deal in boxing.
Still though, it never hurts to keep your options open, and word on the street is that representative at Golden Boy Promotions have already reached out to the undefeated welterweight champion. Weeks ago, the company was still hoping to make a bout between Berto and future Hall of Famer "Sugar" Shane Mosley, but those plans have obviously been tabled with Mosley's decision to pursue fights with Top Rank as a free agent. Whether or not Berto actually does decide to make such a drastic career move remains to be seen, however, he might want to think long and hard before actually doing it because, so far, he's done a pretty good job of getting some really low-risk, but extremely high-reward bouts.
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