by David P. Greisman

Floyd Mayweather’s words are as much marketing slogans as they are mantras. He yells them in the gym and sells them by doing so. “TBE” has “TMT” on T-shirts and hats, peddling apparel while preparing for battle, a man who calls himself The Best Ever inviting all to buy in and join in as part of The Money Team. They chant on cue, his call receiving their response, somehow both sycophantic and symbiotic, the lines serving as motivation and bolstering his reputation.

“Hard work!” he says.

“Dedication!” they respond, affirming the hours he spends each day, the days he spends each week, the weeks he spends each year, and the years he’s spent throughout his life running and sparring and training at a grueling pace and at all hours to maintain the highest of standards he could set, a perfect record that began when he was a 19-year-old bronze medalist entering the pros fresh from being robbed of the chance to fight for gold, perfection that continued until he was a 38-year-old who felt there was nothing more to gain, nothing else he needed to prove.

“All work is…” he prompts.

“Easy work!” they finish, for far more often than not that is how Mayweather has made it look, the hard work over those days and weeks making his work easier during those 12 rounds or less on fight night.

There have been tough moments: a more difficult than expected bout with underrated and beloved journeyman Emanuel Augustus in 2000; fighting with a broken hand against Carlos Hernandez in 2001; a close bout with a debated decision against Jose Luis Castillo in 2002. Zab Judah had some success in the early rounds in 2006. Shane Mosley badly rocked Mayweather in the second round in 2010, far worse than Manny Pacquiao did in the fourth round in 2015.

One judge somehow had Oscar De La Hoya ahead at the end in 2007. One judge somehow had the 2013 fight with Canelo Alvarez as a draw. So, too, did another judge in the first bout against Marcos Maidana in 2014. In every case they were outliers, overruled by a majority that had Mayweather winning clearly. Barring the first Castillo fight, they’ve all been clear wins.

Even when a fighter has pushed him, like Mosley did early, like Victor Ortiz did with his fouling in 2011, like Cotto did with his body work in 2012, and like Pacquiao did by virtue of his hype and reputation, that has only propelled Mayweather to be even better, to take over and take the victory.

The Andre Berto fight was not one of those nights that required that sort of response.

Mayweather had capped his career with the Pacquiao fight, one more win against another vaunted opponent, this one someone who had been described as one of the best boxers of this era but who was soon shown to be no better than second-best. It earned more money by far for a boxing match than any ever had before, and it brought Mayweather a bigger paycheck for one evening than any other pro athlete receives for an entire year.

But he ended his career with Berto, a finale that was far from grand. It truly was easy work. It lacked suspense and it lacked in excitement, with Mayweather beating Berto much in the same manner that he’d defeated so many others. Sadly, a fighter being great doesn’t always make a fight good.

Mayweather now has won all 49 of his fights as a pro, including 26 world title fights, retiring undefeated on a night when his face was as unblemished as his record. The revenue marks set in his previous fight, against Pacquiao in May, may be unreachable. On this past Saturday against Berto, Mayweather himself was merely nearly untouchable.

That wasn’t surprising. Mayweather’s opponents often find it difficult to hit him cleanly, never mind consistently. Berto wasn’t expected to do any better.

His selection for this pay-per-view main event was criticized from the outset. Berto had lost in wars to Victor Ortiz in 2011 and Robert Guerrero in 2012. Both Ortiz and Guerrero went on to lose to Mayweather. Berto lost again, to Jesus Soto-Karass, in 2013. Soto-Karass had been stopped the year before by Marcos Maidana, who dropped a pair of decisions to Mayweather last year.

Berto was 3-3 in his last six fights and was behind on the scorecards to Josesito Lopez in March before scoring a sixth-round technical knockout. Berto hadn’t even beaten an upper-tier welterweight since 2010 against Carlos Quintana or, if you don’t feel Quintana deserving of that label, since 2009 against Luis Collazo.

He responded by reminding people that his eyes had swollen close to shut against Guerrero, that a shoulder tendon had been torn early against Soto-Karass and was so bad it required surgery that sidelined him for more than a year. He was healthier now, had continued to work with respected trainer Virgil Hunter since the Soto-Karass bout and felt he could surprise his doubters. Of course, he had to believe that.

Critics preferred those they felt were more deserving and more challenging opponents for Mayweather, including Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter or Amir Khan.

Thurman is sidelined with a broken hand he suffered against Collazo in July. Of course, he wouldn’t have faced Collazo had he gotten the Mayweather fight instead. Garcia officially left the junior-welterweight division behind and moved up to face Paulie Malignaggi in August. He’s still getting acclimated to the 147-pound division. Porter topped Adrien Broner in June and is likely being maneuvered toward a fight with Thurman.

Khan, passed over by Mayweather in the past, was left longing yet again. He said he’d have enough time to train for Mayweather’s usual mid-September date despite fasting this summer for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Others doubted that. Khan didn’t look great in his May win over Chris Algieri. Still, he would’ve made for a more interesting pairing than Berto. And the September pay-per-view, timed as usual to be on the traditional boxing weekend near Mexican Independence Day, lacked a lot of buzz thanks to Berto being Mayweather’s opponent. Had a fight with Khan been in September or even on a later date, that may have been different.

Nevertheless, Mayweather’s team and those involved with the promotion justified Berto’s selection. They argued, correctly, that Berto is rarely in a boring fight. The silver lining in Berto’s losses was that perhaps Mayweather wouldn’t feel overly threatened against Berto and would open up his offense in an enjoyable fashion, sending his audience off happier than they had been after paying a premium to see Mayweather employ his usual defensive wizardry against Pacquiao.

Boxers’ announced swan songs typically come against easy opponents. Then again, those boxers aren’t typically still the best in the entire sport and aren’t usually charging $65 to $75 for the broadcast of a bout in which the result is preordained.

In this era in which it’s easier than ever for second-tier and even lower-level fighters to win a world title, Berto became the 22nd person Mayweather beat who held a belt, had previously held a belt or would go on to win one.

It’s hard to believe that Berto was once being marketed as possibly being the next great American welterweight, pushed as someone who could replace Mayweather in the future.

Berto was never going to replace Mayweather. He could barely even land a jab on him. He had no nuance. He had no chance. Mayweather neutralized Berto, made him miss with his characteristic great defense and a wealth of movement, tied him up with some tactics that were legal and his usual others that referee Kenny Bayless shouldn’t have allowed but did. The forearms to the neck even went from being a defensive tactic to an offensive one, establishing distance that allowed Mayweather to lace in hard shots in the 12th.

It was along the lines, though not identical, to the kinds of performances that won Bernard Hopkins great praise and brought Wladimir Klitschko great scorn.

It wasn’t fun to watch. Then again, Mayweather — who told his father/trainer after the ninth round that his left hand was hurt — never was going to do to Berto what Ortiz, Guerrero and Soto-Karass had.

That’s not his style. His style is dominating in other fashions. CompuBox statistics, as always with Mayweather, demonstrated just how dominant he was. Mayweather landed 232 of 410 punches on the night, a phenomenal 57 percent connect rate, landing well more than half of what he threw. In terms of power shots he was even more accurate, going 149 of 219, or 68 percent, a frugal but effective average of about 12 landed punches per round out of every 18 or so thrown. Mayweather also landed 83 jabs, which equaled the number of punches Berto landed in total on the entire night.

Berto was just 83 of 495, a 17 percent connect rate, landing 1 punch out of every 6 thrown. That meant Berto landed fewer than 7 punches per round, or one punch for every 26 seconds. Of that, he landed 39 of 301 jabs (13 percent) and 44 of 194 power shots (23 percent). Berto got off with power too rarely. He landed less than four power shots per round out of every 16 or so thrown. He landed with power just once every 49 seconds.

Way back in late 2010, when Berto was still being overpaid to appear against lackluster opponents on HBO, he got a reported $910,000 to land a total of nine punches on Freddy Hernandez, an average of $101,111 for every landed shot. Berto had a reported guarantee of $4 million for fighting Mayweather. This time in defeat, Berto got paid $48,193 for every landed shot. Then again, Mayweather got a $32 million minimum, which meant he got $137,931 for every punch he landed.

It was an incredible parting payment for a retiring fighter. Mayweather and his vocal legions of team members and supporters have become fond of saying that all work is easy work. And as with anyone else who is leaving a job, this last day at work was much easier than the days that preceded it.

The 10 Count will return soon.

“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com