Robert ?The Ghost? Guerrero and his people are calling out Floyd Mayweather Jr. again in the aftermath of the Gilroy boxer?s scintillating unanimous decision victory over the estimable Selcuk Aydin last month in Guerrero?s welterweight debut.
Guerrero deserves to face Mayweather. He deserved it when he was demanding it last winter .
But boxing is not a meritocracy. Many excellent fighters have lacked the drawing power to generate the fights they deserved. A Guerrero-Mayweather matchup would not excite the masses sufficiently to generate massive pay-per-view revenues. That?s what Mayweather was saying last time this issue was raised.
Guerrero?s victory over the little-known Aydin didn?t change that, even though theirs was an exciting battle on Showtime that drew 6,267 at HP Pavilion in San Jose. It certainly widened Guerrero?s horizons for matchmakers. Yet he keeps narrowing his aspirations to 147 pounds and above.
?Obviously, the dream fight for him is a fight against Floyd Mayweather, and so, we’ll see in the coming weeks and months what’s going to happen there,? said Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions, which has promoted Guerrero since 2009, when Guerrero was a 130-pounder.
What if Mayweather continues to disdain Guerrero? ?I know that there are bigger and better things ahead for Robert,? Schaefer told Lem Satterfield of The Ring, ?and now, we’ll work hard to get Robert these opportunities that he deserves.?
Targeting Mayweather seems to have been a major factor in Guerrero?s leap past 140 pounds to 147. Guerrero walks around in the low 150s these days — one reason co-manager Luis de Cubas says Guerrero is even willing to fight Miguel Cotto at 154 — so welterweight is an easy target and Guerrero is a credible member of that division.
Maybe that?s the way to go. As de Cubas pointed out to BoxingScene?s Osman Rodriguez, ?Cotto is not a big junior middleweight, and we believe size-wise Robert is bigger than him. We would have the advantage in height, speed and reach.? That would be true against several welterweights as well.
On the other hand, Guerrero?s ideal weight is probably 140, where his height, speed and reach would be even greater advantages.
It?s a division that admittedly seemed to reach a climax in 2010-2011 as wife Casey Guerrero?s cancer treatments and Robert?s shoulder injury kept him largely inactive. But there are still as many options at 140 as at 147, and it doesn?t make sense to totally disdain the division, even though Timothy Bradley, Devon Alexander, Victor Ortiz and Marcos Maidana aren?t there anymore and you have to wonder how long Amir Khan and Juan Manuel Marquez might be.
Imagine how a welterweight title fight with Bradley (coming off his questionable decision victory over Manny Pacquiao) would do in San Jose. Or a bout with Andre Berto, who was in San Jose for Guerrero-Aydin.
Or Brandon Rios? Or Danny Garcia, coming off his victory over Khan. Garcia fought on a Guerrero undercard in San Jose in 2009. Or Lamont Peterson, who won a questionable decision over Khan last year? Or Khan? Oh, wait: those are all junior welterweights.
Thing is, Guerrero would be a good bet to clean out the 140-pound division (yes, even over Juan Manuel Marquez), whereas he?ll merely be among the best at 147 and would be a decided underdog against Mayweather and maybe several others.
Yes, Guerrero is about as good as any opponent Mayweather could pick, other than Manny Pacquiao, who is also unlikely to beckon Guerrero soon. But there are so many other good fights for Robert, better fights than are currently on the Ghost?s resume.
He needs at least one of those, and as probably more like three, to create the optimum clamor for that bout with Mayweather.
