Floyd Mayweather Jr. wants to make sure that he will retire with a perfect boxing record, which is the main reason why he is preparing hard for his next fight.
Mayweather, who currently holds a perfect 48-0 record with 26 knockout victories, will put his unblemished fight card at stake against Andre Berto on Sept. 12 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mayweather, who will also place his World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association welterweight title on the line, is a heavy favorite to win against Berto, but the reigning pound-for-pound king said that he is not taking his challenger lightly because anything can happen on fight night.
"Anything is possible," Mayweather said. "Like they say in football, any given Sunday, I'll say any given Saturday. Anything can happen. So I'm prepared mentally and physically. I'm ready. I'm sure he's in top shape and he's ready. But I'm not going to overlook this guy."
The 38-year-old boxing champion, who is coming off a masterful unanimous decision win against Filipino nemesis Manny Pacquiao in May, said that Berto is a dangerous opponent.
Mayweather feels that Berto, the former International Boxing Federation welterweight champion, will go all out in training and on fight night because he has nothing to lose on Sept. 12.
"He feels like he has nothing to lose," Mayweather said of Berto. "And I think that when you have a guy that's put in a situation with nothing to lose, it makes him work that much harder. He has a chance to be one of the top guys in the sport when I'm through. So is he trying to dethrone Floyd Mayweather? Absolutely."
Berto has racked up 30 victories, 23 by knockouts, against just three defeats in his professional career. He is 3-3 in his last six fights, but the Florida native is coming off a unanimous decision win against Steve Chambers in September 2014 and a sixth-round knockout victory against Joselito Lopez in March.
Berto knows that most analysts and boxing fans already counted him out right after Mayweather decided to face him. But he is determined to silence his critics and make history in their upcoming showdown.
"It'd be huge for everybody. It'd be something magical," Berto said of winning against Mayweather. "That's why we're in camp right now working our ass off, and we're looking forward to making history happen."
