By Dan Ambrose: Light welterweight contender Robert Guerrero will go under the knife on Tuesday to repair the torn rotator cuff in his left shoulder, according to Dan Rafael. At the minimum, Guerrero will be out of action for at least four months, but it could be longer depending on how rehabilitation goes.

With an injury like that there’s no telling whether Guerrero will ever regain the strength in the shoulder. What’s really bad is Guerrero is a southpaw and most of his power comes from his left hand. If he’s unable to punch with the strength he had before he’s going to be in deep trouble against the stronger fighters in the division. Guerrero doesn’t have much of a right hand and if you take away his left, he’s going to have serious issues trying to make an impact in the light welterweight division.

Guerrero was set to fight Marcos Maidana on August 27th until the injury occurred last week while sparring. WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan initially was skeptical about the injury, think that Guerrero had been paid a step aside fee by Maidana in order for him to put more pressure on Khan to fight him in December. Although Khan later agreed that Guererro was indeed injured, it left some bad blood. Guerrero still wants to fight Khan at a later date when the shoulder heels but that’s probably not going to happen because Khan is planning on moving up in weight next year. Guerrero could reschedule to fight Maidana after his shoulder heals up.