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Berto's promoter 'all ears' for a Pacquiao fight


You can add World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight champion Andre Berto to the list of fighters eager to face the newly crowned WBC super welterweight titlist Manny Pacquiao. That's what Berto's promoter, Lou Dibella, said just hours before his Saturday evening (Sunday in Manila) promotion of the fight between middleweight champ Sergio Martinez and Paul Williams in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Dibella's fighter Martinez eventually won by knockout in the second round. "If he [Top Rank CEO Bob Arum] is interested in a Pacquiao-Berto fight, I'm all ears," said the boss of the New York-based promotional organization Dibella Entertainment. "Generally when Bob and I talk, within an hour we can figure out if we can make a deal or not. Manny makes his own decisions. It's not if Berto wants to fight Manny that makes the difference, it's whether Manny wants to fight Berto that makes the difference. "If that's what Manny wants to do, I’m all ears." Berto, 26-0 (20 knockouts), of Winter Haven, Florida, joins a list that includes World Boxing Organization (WBO) and World Boxing Association (WBA) lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez and Sugar Shane Mosley. Any chance of these fighters getting inside the ring with the eight-division world titlist can be a back-up plan if a possible mega-fight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. fails to be ironed out for a third time, Berto must first get past Freddy Hernandez, 29-1 (20 KO), next Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada. Berto is heavily favored over Hernandez, whose biggest wins have come against badly diminished former champions Mike Anchondo and Demarcus Corley. The Hernandez fight is the 2004 Haitian Olympian Berto's fifth defense of the title he won in 2008 with a seventh-round TKO of Miguel Angel Rodriguez. Mosley, 46-6 (39 KO), was on hand at Pacquiao's post-fight press conference following the Margarito fight to officially throw his hat into the ring. Mosley stated that "Pacquiao has fought everybody except me and Floyd," adding: "I see some openings [in Pacquiao] that I can exploit." Dibella, a former HBO executive, scoffs at the idea that the 39-year-old Mosley, who registered a draw against Sergio Mora and suffered a lopsided decision to Mayweather Jr. in his two most recent fights, can give Pacquiao a serious fight. And yes, he feels that his 27-year-old charge can. "I personally think it's more saleable because as big a name as Shane Mosley is, after what happened between Mosley and Mayweather, and also frankly after how Margarito looked against Pacquiao, I don't think there are a lot of people that will think Mosley has a snowflake's chance in hell." "I think that Berto is new blood even though Pacquiao would be favored," Dibella added. Dibella concedes that Pacquiao, whose last fight generated approximately 1.4 million pay-per-view buys, and Mayweather, whom Dibella would also like Berto to fight, hold the bargaining power in negotiations with Berto. That won't stop him from making his intentions known, however. "Clearly, Floyd and Manny are the boss. They're in the position that they dictate who they're gonna fight, not the other way around. Am I gonna offend anybody? No, but is Berto going to make it very clear that he would love the opportunity to fight the very best? Yeah." Ryan Songalia is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) and a contributor to GMANews.TV. He can be reached at ryan@ryansongalia.com . An archive of his work can be found at www.ryansongalia.com. Follow him on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/ryansongalia.

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