by David P. Greisman
It was barely a year ago that all we were hearing from Robert Guerrero and his camp was about how he deserved a fight with Floyd Mayweather. But once the negotiations for Mayweather-Guerrero were actually under way earlier this year, Guerrero and his team were conspicuously quiet.
Not anymore.
Mayweather-Guerrero will air on Showtime pay-per-view on May 4. And Guerrero has been making his rounds in the media, including an appearance on KNBR in San Francisco with Tom Tolbert in which he elaborated on why he believes he can beat the best boxer in the sport today.
“I’m versatile in the ring,” Guerrero said, according to a transcript of the conversation from SportsRadioInterviews.com and a recording of the interview posted on that website. “You look at all my films and my previous fights. I never fight the same style. I come in different.
“I can fight on the inside or outside, I can be a boxer-puncher, I can just be a boxer, a slugger. I’m able to change it up and be versatile in the ring also. It makes it much more challenging, and also being a left-hander that’s not scared to fight, not scared to throw punches and get in there and mix it up and take a shot. So that’s what Floyd respects, too, in the ring. It’s going to be a dogfight,” he said.
Guerrero said he isn’t going to look at just one of Mayweather’s fights to study him — after all, Mayweather hasn’t suffered a pro loss yet. But he is looking at what has troubled Mayweather at times in the past. And Guerrero did take note of last year’s Miguel Cotto fight, in which he saw Cotto doing certain things to get to Mayweather, and he also saw that Mayweather might just be slowing down.
“It’s a combination of both,” Guerrero said. “The older you get, the more you slow down, whether Floyd wants to admit it or not. No fighter wants to admit they’re slowing down. But what Cotto did well, is Cotto had great timing. No matter how fast you are, how slick you are, timing is everything. Just look at [basketball player] Steve Nash. He’s not the fastest guy on the court or can jump the highest, but his timing is great. He changes his speed, he sticks to the fundamentals and he’ll give you a little juke and he’s popping a three-pointer on you.
“Timing has to do with everything, and that’s what Miguel Cotto did very well. He timed a lot of his shots and he exchanged when he needed to exchange. He timed everything well and he did very well in the fight. But Floyd is that type of guy … he’s versatile in the ring, he’s able to change the gear and do something else to get you off your game plan.”
More from the Guerrero interview can be found at:
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow David on Twitter @fightingwords2 or send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
