By Rick Reeno
WBA 'regular' welterweight champion Keith 'One Time' Thurman was ringside on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Thurman was there to support his friend Andre Berto, who was challenging Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26KOs) for the WBC/WBA super welterweight titles.
From the early going, Thurman realized the fight was a losing battle. Mayweather was much faster, and sharper, than Berto.
Berto was a tremendous underdog heading into the fight with most sports books on the Vegas strip listing him at around 34-1 during fight week.
"[I knew Mayweather had the fight in] round one. From round one, that speed I just knew would be tremendously difficult to deal with," Thurman told krikya360.com.
Mayweather switched up his tactics in the contest. Thurman saw him adjust to Berto's style by utilizing the left hook much more than the right hand.
"The one thing that got me about this fight is Floyd is known for his right hand and even though he used it, he didn't use it as much as he normally does and he actually resorted to the left hook a lot more than the straight hand in this fight. I guess he used what he saw was open on Berto. He kept mixing it up with the left jab and the left hook," Thurman said.
And because of Berto's muscular build, Mayweather saw the punches coming all night.
"We all know that Berto has really tight muscles. And tight muscles can really telegraph punches. Especially at this level, Floyd was able to see every time he was loading up with that right hand," Thurman said.
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