I'm gonna piss people off but here's the word on Berto...

[El Kabong]

....let's see him fight a puncher or better yet a boxer who can take his punch a la Forbes whom is a tiny guy but if he has enough of a workrate he's going to really frustrate Berto

[rjj tszyu]

I said he had the potential to be as good! That doesn't mean I think he will be as good as Floyd. If Roger or Floyd Sr trained him now for a couple of years I could see him beating the rest of the division. His defence alone has improved ten fold over the last 5 fights or so and his speed and skill have always been evident. One thing I would already give him over Floyd is punch power!

....it's easy to look good vs the guys Berto has fought

Yeah but nobody fights elite fighters straight away. It's something that you build up to. Look at Ricky Hatton. He had 38 fights before he faced an elite opponent.

I like what I've seen of Berto so far and I honestly do think he is bursting with potential and if that potential is handled correctly then I think he can become a superstar of boxing.

[rjj tszyu]

Jeff Lacy was always one dimensional and he struggled against decent opposition like Sheika, Vanderpool, even before the Calzaghe fight. There were big cracks in his game........

Where as Andre Berto is a much more well rouned fighter he has a good jab and can box at mid range, and he can also come forward and put good effective pressure on with lightning quick combinations............

He may be somewhat overrated but theres no way he ends up like Lacy, i think he can hang with most of the top Welterweights, even if he loses he will give a good account of himself...........

I just think he needs to tighten up his defense a little and not get wild which he has done quite alot. But one problel i do see is that i don't think he is really going to get any better, he hasn't showed me any real improvements like Mayweather, Cotto, did in there early fights............

They say when a fighter wins a world title it automatically makes them a 25 percent better fighter or something like that, lets see if he can show us anything new against Forbes who is a decent test although not the fight i wanted to see. I want to see Collazo vs Berto now if Berto could win that fight that would tell me for certain he is elite.

Well Collazo is his mandatory defence providing both win next week

[PRIDE OF BOSTON]

He is the next Jeff Lacy... (not sylistically but career wise)

He seriously meats the ELITE and he gets exposed...

Is he skilled? Yes.

Someone said in another thread he has the potential to be as good as Floyd... Floyd at 12 fights was better then this kid.

Anyway, I thought that statement was crazy!

I also think that if Forbes hadn't been a career sparring partner he'd have a better shot cuz he has the goods..

Berto will beat him with sheer output... Forbes will box his ears off but Berto will land more leather...

UD Berto but whatever...

He'll get exposed soon enough

When you become a guru of boxing I will take your advice, until then you don't really have a point, Mayweather had a lot of fights where he didn't look better then Berto. EVen in his second or third fights against Sanders or Saunders the southpaw he looked bad. I agree Mayweather is better then Berto, but who has Mayweather not been better then? Mayweather by his 12th fight has been better then any fighter that far along in their career since Ray Leonard pretty much. Roy Jones looked not all that great until he got more comfortable in the ring, and I think thats all Berto needs. Once he gets more relaxed his speed will allow him to dominate way more than he is now, even though he is dominating legit opponents quite handidly. Berto is doing fine, people are underrating him way too much. Forbes will not badly outbox him.

Yeah, when you become a guru I'll take your advice aswell...

Did you read anything I wrote? You must pick and choose what you want to see...

I stated exactly what you said in your mayweather statement above... What's your argument, guru?

and in the Forbes comment... I pick berto to outwork him... Forbes is the better boxer but Berto will put more leather on him...

Read my posts then reply...


I repeat... Read my posts before you reply...

I repeat, read my posts before you reply or you will continue to look like a moron, guru

[Wayne]

I think he's just being rushed a little too much. Once he gets that L out of the way he'll have the pressure off him to be the future of the division and he'll be great down the line. He's got all the tools (including several Lacy doesn't have like defense and speed) and he's a big-big welterweight. Almost on par with Paul Williams because he's fought at middleweight which is insane considering his speed. If he fights at or above the level of a Steve Forbes in his next few fights I think he'll be ready for someone of Miguel Cotto's caliber next year. I'm not saying he'll beat Cotto, just be prepared enough to make an interesting fight. After Forbes I really would like to see Berto step up and fight Kermit Cintron. It would be a good test to see if he can best a guy with power and decent speed, who has fought at the elite level.