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Andre Berto discusses opposition in Vegas to I Can't Breathe shirts

Andre Berto and several other fighters wore "I Can't Breathe" and "Hands Up" shirts this weekend in Las Vegas, but Berto says that event organizers tried to shut down any displays of the message.

"They're showing us a lot of bullshit. Security wasn't with it. The managers of the MGM wasn't with it, everything we're doing. Trying to pass out shirts, trying to get the fighters to stand on stage about the situation. They weren't with it at all. So they pretty much shot the situation down."

Do you feel there's an active opposition to fighters such as yourself to not stand up and represent the cause?

"Of course. What it comes down to, sometimes you gotta shake some folks up and be loud about it. They're gonna continue to shut you down any way they can. At some point it has to get done, by any means possible."

There was opposition with Derrick Rose and Kobe Bryant, but you're not part of a team or a franchise, you're an independent contractor, so--

"We stay somewhat in the shell, trying to be politically correct. They don't wanna ruffle any feathers. These basketball players, they got guaranteed contracts. Us as fighters, they don't wanna ruffle any feathers, they want to make sure they don't upset these promoters, but at the end of the day, we gotta make a statement. If I gotta be loud about it, if I gotta jump in the ring, we're gonna make sure our point gets across."

(Interview by Keith "Champ" Creed)

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