Guerrero Decisions Rosado

By Boxing News - 02/07/2009 - Comments

guerrero34By Jim Dower: Undefeated middleweight prospect Fernando Guerrero (13-0, 11 KOs) defeated the tough Gabriel Rosado (10-3, 6 KOs) last night in a eight-round unanimous decision at the Wicomico Civic Center, in Salisbury, Maryland. The final judges’ scores were 77-74, 77-74 and 76-75. Guerrero, 22, was knocked down in the 3rd round after getting hit with a left hand while attempting to land a right of his own. However, Guerrero got up off the canvas and settled down turning the fight into a war and getting the better of the 23-year-old Rosado.

Guerrero, the 2007 United States amateur middleweight champion who had 140 amateur fights before turning pro in 2007, struggled in the opening round, taking a lot of heavy right hands from Rosado. Guerrero, a southpaw, stayed composed and jabbed frequently but was troubled often by the big right hand shots from Rosado.
In the 2nd round, Guerrero picked up the pace of his jabs, throwing many more than he did in the 1st round and landing well. Rosado, however, opened up a barrage of heavy right hands near the end of the round, hitting Guerrero repeatedly with solid shots to the head. Guerrero took the shots well but looked overmatched in the power department.

At the start of the 3rd round, Guerrero, while attempting to land a right hand, was nailed by a straight left hand from Rosado and knocked down. It looked to be a case of Rosado’s punch getting there first and catching Guerrero off guard. Guerrero then stepped up the pace of his jab, throwing it over and over again and keeping Rosado from landing his right hands nearly as often as he had in the first two rounds.

The fight turned into a war in the 4th round, as Guerrero suddenly opened up with a heavy onslaught of hard left hands and right hooks to the head of Rosado. For his part, Rosado attempted to fire back but was under heavy fire and was too busy taking shots which prevented him from firing back. Rosado, who had things pretty much his way in the first three rounds, found himself getting hit with a massive amount of shots and looked in shock and confused, as if he hadn’t expected this sudden outburst of punishment from Guerrero.

In the 5th, Rosado was now moving, trying to avoid Guerrero as much as possible and doing a poor job of it. Guerrero spent the round stalking Rosado, hitting him with labs, right hands and straight lefts to the head. In the last 30 seconds of the round, Rosado stopped running and turned the attack on Guerrero, landing well with hard right hands. However, it was far too late for him to win the round as Guerrero had dominated the first two and a half minutes of the round.

Rosado began developing swelling under his right eye in the 6th, likely a product of the straight left hands that Guerrero was continuously nailing him with. Guerrero caught Rosado against the ropes numerous times in the round, blasting him with heavy shots to the head and body. Rosado hardly threw anything back in the round and was getting beaten badly against the ropes. The referee stood close watching the action as if he were about to stop it at one point.

Rosado continued taking heavy punishment in the 7th round. However, he fought much better this round than he had in quite some time, landing some nice uppercuts and right hands. It wasn’t enough to win the round, but at least Rosado didn’t get punished as badly as he had in many of the previous rounds.
In the 8th, Guerrero taunted Rosado, holding his hands out to his sides and inviting Rosado to come in and try to hit him. Guerrero spent the better part of the round taunting, moving and jabbing at Rosado from long range and kept Rosado from landing any desperate shots.

In the end, Rosado didn’t have the punch variety or skill to compete with Guerrero, who looked like a fighter on a higher level. However, Guerrero, as good as he looked, may have problems in the future due to his short, 5’9” height, small for a middleweight. He has excellent boxing skills, but lacks big power and at some point he’s going to find himself in with a big puncher who will likely expose his lack of size and power much more than Rosado could. Ideally, Guerrero should consider moving down in weight to the light middleweight or welterweight divisions because he appears much too small for the middleweight division.