May Day, Pay Day: Mayweather-Guerrero Preview

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The time is finally here, “Mayday” the phrase coined by Mr. PPV, Floyd “Money” Mayweather for his latest Cinco De Mayo PPV. This will arguably be the most anticipated card from top to bottom all year. The card will feature fighters such as Mayweather’s own J’Leon Love, along with featherweight champion Daniel Ponce De Leon, top 154 and 160 contender, Gabriel Rosado, 1 of the warriors of the sport Abner Mares, and young rising star Leo Santa Cruz. And of course the main event of the evening will be Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero vs. the man of the night, 1 of the all-time greats of the sport, Floyd Mayweather.

Whether you’re a hardcore fan or just a casual observer, if you’re reading this article, you already heard of and know who Floyd Mayweather is. So I’m not going to talk about whom he’s beaten or what he has meant and still means to the sport. I’m going to take this time to talk about what type of fighter he is now at this stage of his career. Mayweather comes into this fight with the very well-known 43-0 record. He has 26 KOs, but unless you count the Victor Ortiz KO, he hasn’t stopped anyone since Ricky Hatton in 2007, and before that, Shamba Mitchell in 2005.

He is still 1 of the best counter punchers in the sport and even though he doesn’t cause stoppages, he can still hurt you. However, the main piece of Floyd’s game that he is most known for is his defense. Floyd, with his almost patented shoulder roll defense, is still 1 of, if not the best in the sport at avoiding direct punches. He has been caught a few times by Corley, Mosley, Cotto, and even Ortiz, but he has shown in those fights that he does have a good chin. He has been wobbled, but never knocked down. A lot of that is accounted to his fitness. Floyd is 1 of the most well-conditioned athletes in the world and if you’ve ever seen his workouts, you would know why. When you hear him chant “Hard work…..Dedication”, he actually means it.

The man that most casual fans will get to know this weekend will be Robert Guerrero. The man known as “The Ghost” comes into this fight with a 31-1-1 record with 18 KOs. He is an aggressive fighter that was mostly around lower weight divisions until last year when he moved up to welterweight and beat Selcuk Aiden followed up by an impressive win over Andre Berto. Even before the Berto fight, Guerrero has been screaming about getting a fight against Mayweather, coming on Tha Boxing Voice, as well as other places. He is also a southpaw fighter, the type that usually is very awkward to most fighters like Floyd because his shoulder roll causes him to face Guerrero’s hard left instead of a normal fighter’s power punch aiming at Floyd’s back.

Guerrero, like most of us, saw some of the issues that Floyd had against Ortiz when he pressured him before the headbutt. He now hopes to duplicate that effort without the type of ending that Ortiz experienced. However, along with his defense, and speed, the biggest advantage that Floyd has over most of his opponents, at this time, is experience. Mayweather knows that Guerrero will come after him aggressively and he will be patient and wait for his opening. Floyd will probably throw 1 punch to every 2-3 that Guerrero throws, but the difference will be how much Guerrero can connect because everyone knows Floyd connects at a high percentage.

When it comes down to it, I feel Guerrero could make this a somewhat exciting fight, but I feel Mayweather will find a way to win by unanimous decision. Guerrero will get his big payday, he will put up a respectable effort, and he will gain some fans with his style. Floyd will move on to fight probably September 14th and once against have all of us watching him for another big fight, in Vegas, as he continues through his 6 fight, 250 million contract with Showtime. He really lives up to his nickname “Money”, enjoy the fights.