Hall of Fame boxing commentator, Al Bernstein has seen his fair share of boxing events and has called some of the biggest in the history of the sport. He was on the broadcast team for Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, which went on to become the highest grossing event of all-time. On August 26th, Al will once again be calling a mega event in the sport as Floyd Mayweather Jr. is set to come back after a two year retirement to face MMA star, Conor McGregor.
I recently had a chance to speak to Al Bernstein to get his thoughts on the current boxing landscape. Al gave his views on the upcoming Mayweather – McGregor event and talks about the potential backlash that could come from it. Bernstein also shared views on the Canelo vs. Golovkin PPV and gave his thoughts on the fight itself. Additionally, Al talked about the future of Manny Pacquiao. Here is what Al Bernstein had to say.
Robert Brown: Al, what are your thoughts on the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight happening?
Al Bernstein: I think this is one of those interesting and rare events where it wasn’t that somebody selected this and said, “Oh let’s put this out there for the public’s approval.” This was something that came about because the public seemed to want to see it. I know a number of boxing purists and even MMA purist are annoyed at this happening, but people genuinely want to see it and that’s part of the reason why it got made.
Robert Brown: If this fight doesn’t live up to expectations, does it have a chance to damage both sports?
Al Bernstein: I think most people do believe that this is a one off. That’s not to say that it can’t do damage or enhance the reputation of one of the two fighters. Obviously if Mayweather was to lose this fight somehow, it would be seriously damaging to him. What it would do to each of the sports, I can’t tell. It could have some implications, but to me it seems like a one off, but at the end of the day it doesn’t comment further on either of the sports.
Robert Brown: With the Mayweather-McGregor and the Canelo-Golovkin fights being so close together, does this have a chance of damaging the Alvarez-Golovkin numbers?
Al Bernstein: I don’t know, I’m not that big an expert on the pay-per-view market. I think some of what may help the Golovkin-Canelo fight get through this is a lot of the hardcore boxing fans may take a pass on the Mayweather-McGregor fight. The Mayweather-McGregor numbers will be fueled to some degree by MMA fans and by casual fans who are tuning in for the spectacle. I think there will be enough people left over certainly for Canelo-Golovkin, and that fight has been very widely anticipated as well. I think it’s possible for both of these to come out relatively unscathed.
Robert Brown: What are your thoughts on the Alvarez vs. Golovkin fight? Who do you think might win that one?
Al Bernstein: I think it’s going to be very entertaining because both men will be in the pocket exchanging with each other. Daniel Jacobs was able to do well against Golovkin by boxing well and showing movement, which Canelo doesn’t do. I think they are both going to be in the pocket exchanging.
There are two questions that need to be answered, can Canelo hurt Golovkin? And can Canelo take the big punch of Golovkin? If it turns out if one or both of those are true early in the match, we’re going to have a heck of a match. I think we’re going to have a heck of a match anyway because I think they both can land a lot of punches and I think this will be a shoot out.
Robert Brown: Who do you think might win that fight?
Al Bernstein: I would lean toward Golovkin to win the fight. I think at the end of the day this is stylistically a good match-up for him.
Robert Brown: Manny Pacquiao is looking to comeback after the close loss to Jeff Horn. Should Pacquiao consider retiring regardless of the result?
Al Bernstein: I think he fought very well against Bradley and Vargas who are two excellent fighters, so he had come back from the poor effort against Mayweather — which he claims was partially due to an injury. In this fight he demonstrated clearly that it’s very possible that father time is starting to take it’s toll on Pacquiao. This next fight with Horn will give us a good idea because if he can’t perform better than he did, no matter whether you think he won or not, that’s not the skill-set needed to beat the upper echelon fighters in the welterweight division.
Robert Brown: Would you expect Pacquiao to bounce back and perform better in the rematch?
Al Bernstein: I don’t know, a lot of it will depend on where he’s at in terms of his age and his ability. It could be a difficult as the first one.
The fight between may & mac maybe exciting and for entertainment reason, it’s enteresting. But we can’t compare it to the fight bet glov & al because it’s of different genre. If i have to choose between the two fights, i would go to the latter. Who will win? It will be may and glov. Fo sure, the future fight between the two winners will be the real boxing match of the century.
With regard to manny’s rematch fight with horn this coming November, ()hopefully it will happen), it will be the last fight of pacman. Unfortunately, manny will loss again. Mother time has already catch up with him. I just hope he will not loss badly beaten and come up healthy.
It’s not father time, it’s his other job that affects his training and consequently resulting in a bad performance. Add to that his coaching staff and himself being complacent and thinking they are invincible.
It’s definitely Father Time .. he was such exceptional fighter that even when he out of his prime he was still better than most top fighters.. he’s been out of his prime since sugar Shane Mosley fight.. you know how long that was? If pacquiao fought mayweather when he destroyed cotto or clottey that would’ve been one Hecuba fight with money may.. but u know we never got that fight
PAC was in tooooo many wars with morales ,Marquez cotto etc..
That prime pacquiao would’ve destroyed Thurman , Crawford,brook etc..
Name it.. is there any doubt? He was very special fighter but people expect him to be super man.
Money may is a defensive fighter and never got into wars . He waited PAC to get KO before he fought him. Cmon man .. PAC fought may at his game cuz he can’t take the beatings anymore and still did extremely well.. PAC is a LEGEND
I agree with all of your comments
Pacman vs horn 1 is a fix fight. If it happen in neutral ground liked in las vegas, they are neutral as long as it’s not a Floyd Mayweather fight then PAC vs horn 1 will end like pacman wins. But because Jeff horn promoters including the local government of Brisbane is powerful in Australia, with the backing of Bob Arum, WBO officials was manipulated…if you want to watch a circus event go watch a all Floyd Mayweather fight specially his August 26 schedule but if you want a real entertaining from fight then can find it in pacman’s library. Even the worst pacman fight event is lot better eatch than the Floyd’s best fight.
The Horn Pacman fight was very close and could have gone 115 – 113 to either fighter. But even after this time still calling it a home town decision defies all logic. ALL the officials were from overseas; none being from Australia. Where do you want the fight to take place; on the effin moon?