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Floyd Mayweather vs. Robert Guerrero Recap by Tony Stewart & Post Press Conference

By: Tony Stewart

Las Vegas, NV (May 5th, 2013)– In a near flawless, virtuoso performance Floyd Mayweather, Jr., remained undefeated and handing Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero his second professional loss.

In what is probably his best display of boxing wizardry to date, Floyd Mayweather once again proved to the world why he is pound for pound the best boxer of his generation. At the age of 36, Mayweather put on a display that was both thrilling and awing at the same time. Superb defense, exceptional foot work, amazing hand speed, timing, movement, precise punching, mental sharpness, feints, you name it, the list goes on and on. Saturday night on the biggest stage Floyd Mayweather was unbeatable.

Amid all the pre-fight hype, the bickering and verbal shots taken at Mayweather by the Guerrero camp, he remained poised and focused. While I believe the Guerrero camp was more focused on Floyd, I have to say he seemed even more determinedly focused on the pending fight. Not so much against The Ghost but against an opponent was intent taking his crown.

Most will say, or have said, Guerrero really didn’t deserve to be in the ring with Floyd but then that begs the question. Who does? Guerrero earned his chance the right way. He fought his way up two divisions, handily beat two very capable fighters convincingly. A four-division champion, who has very good skills himself, who over the course of 12 rounds was reduced to something that looked like a sparring partner.

While I had it as a shutout, the official scoring was unanimous, Guerrero won roughly three rounds of the fight and those were probably the rounds where he was able to sporadically get to Mayweather’s body during the clinches against the ropes before Floyd spun away. Either way Floyd dominated this fight.

Incidentally, three rounds is the same number of rounds Miguel Cotto won against Floyd during their match. And Miguel Cotto is considered to be a future Boxing Hall of Fame fighter, yet he and Robert shared the same level of success against Mayweather.

The Mayweather game was simple, hit and not get hit. The plan of attack was levied behind Mayweather’s laser-like right hand lead to the body and head of Guerrero all night long. And when Guerrero would attempt to retaliate Floyd became like a ghost, leaving Guerrero swinging at nothing.

Guerrero’s window of opportunity to attack any part of Floyd’s body was evaporating quicker and quicker round by round. Although Guerrero, a fundamentally sound boxer with a penchant for brawling, expected to be able to push Mayweather around, he found out quickly how very tricky and costly a pursuit that was to do.

His measures of success really only came when he was able to angle Mayweather into a corner and lay against him, tie him up and try to rough him up, but that was even limited by Floyd’s constant defensive maneuvering and spinning out of the corner.

A look of frustration and discouragement became more prevalent on Guerrero’s face as the fight progressed. Where Robert and Ruben Guerrero both had much to say about Mayweather’s person and his lifestyle outside the ring, inside the squared circle, Floyd was king and court was in session and Robert was found guilty before millions of fans. Verbally he had been the antagonist in the lead up to the fight but once it was just him and Floyd, he failed to make his case and was sentenced to looking like a limited fighter desperately hoping for something to happen. It did, he became no. 44.

This fight also underscored one other point. Two Mayweather’s are better than one. The reunion of Floyd Mayweather, Sr., to the camp as co-head trainer helped to refocus Floyd on one strength of his arsenal that he himself felt was lacking—his defense. The unity within the training camp as well as within their personal relationship was plainly evident in the fight.

If this kind of effortless performance is what we can expect from a strengthened Mayweather camp, then perhaps the remaining 5 fights he eluded too may not be as difficult to conceive after all. Time will tell and the clock is ticking.

“A tough fighter who fights smarter is twice as tough to beat.” – Cus D’Amato

 

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