Floyd Mayweather Jr. was in the house on Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas where he watched his protégé Adrien Broner take a unanimous decision loss to Shawn Porter. Mayweather was asked for some insight on the search for a September opponent, and Mayweather's response was bizarre.
For weeks, Amir Khan has been believed to be the frontrunner, even though he was less than explosive vs. Chris Algieri on May 26. Khan still got the victory and improved to 3-0 as a full-fledged welterweight, with three wins by unanimous decision. When asked whom he will fight next, Mayweather blatantly left Khan out.
"I'm going to fight Andre Berto or Karim Mayfield in September," Mayweather said.
Neither fighter has much of a profile currently with casual boxing fans, and both represent a steep decline in quality of competition from Manny Pacquiao.
Berto, 31, looked to be a shot fighter during back-to-back losses to Robert Guerrero and Jesus Soto Karass in brutal firefights the likes of which shorten careers. He has since won two straight fights, but they were against journeymen.
Mayfield is an even more strange name to be involved in the fray. He's 2-2 in his last four fights, with losses against Thomas Dulorme and Emmanuel Taylor, two fighters who went on to lose in their highest-profile bouts after facing Mayfield.
Still, Mayweather hyped both fighters' chances against him, which was strange because a typical method of fight promotion for him is to down his opponent's chances of winning.
"I mean, every fighter, you know. One of those guys could upset Floyd Mayweather, you never know. It's the Mayweather sweepstakes, who's gonna hit the lottery. It all depends on how I feel," Mayweather said.
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