By Jason Kim: Former two-time world champion Robert Guerrero (29-1-1, 18 KO’s) is going through shoulder rehab after undergoing shoulder surgery recently to repair a partially torn left rotator cuff. Guerrero, 28, is optimistic that the shoulder will heal sufficiently to where he’ll be back at 100% of what he was before.

However, that remains to be seen. With injuries that involve the rotator cuff, it’s rare that fighters are able to regain the range of motion and/or the power that they once had in the injured shoulder.

In Guerrero’s case, it’s his power shoulder that was affected, which makes it even worse for him. He’s got to hope that he can regain the strength that he once had or else he’s going to be a dramatically more limited fighter than he was in the past.

Guerrero is reportedly interested in taking part in the welterweight tourney that’s being discussed involving Andre Berto, Lucas Matthysse, and Devon Alexander. That’s probably not a good idea, because Guerrero would be hard-pressed to beat those guys even before the injury occurred and after he comes back the last thing he needs is to be thrown out with the top welterweights, even with a couple of them being more light welterweight than welterweight in size and power.

If he’s unable to regain the power his shoulder, Guerrero is going to have to make some changes in his game to where he’s slugging less and boxing more. He was stepping up to the light welterweight division before the injury occurred. And now that he’s coming back, he might have to focus more on boxing if he doesn’t want to take beatings against the more powerful light welterweights. It’s already clear that he has problems facing body punchers, and that’s going to be area where he’s going to be vulnerable if he can’t regain his power to bang on the inside.