By Allen Fox: Like a lot of people, Larry Merchant, a TV analyst for HBO, doesn’t see the wisdom or the appeal of a Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Robert Guerrero fight on May 5th in what will be a PPV fight on HBO. Guerrero has been mentioned recently as one of two fighters that Mayweather is considering for his fight on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Merchant told examiner.com “I don’t get it except that he’s [Guerrero] a Golden Boy fighter and he wants a big fight like a lot of fighters do. Nobody blames them for that. But he’s never been a primetime attraction, much less a pay per view attraction. I think he has to go out and beat somebody who has some credentials before fighting a top fighter.”
Merchant wasn’t impressed when he learned that Guerrero, 28, had recently defeated Michael Katsidis in his last fight last April. Merchant feels that Guerrero needs a lot more than a win over a guy like Katsidis, who had already previously been beaten by Joel Casamayor, Juan Diaz, and Juan Manuel Marquez before Guerrero got to him.
It’s hard to see things different from Merchant. If this is all Golden Boy Promotions has in the way of an opponent for Mayweather, then I suppose he can accept that fight if he can’t someone else. But Saul Alvarez, the WBC junior middleweight champion, is the much better fight for Mayweather if he can get it. Alvarez already has wide appeal in the United States and Mexico, and he could end up a crossover star in the same way that Oscar De La Hoya did.
Guerrero’s best wins have come against Jason Litzau, Malcom Klassen, Casamayor and Vicente Escobedo. That’s not a really deep list of talented fighters. None of are big starts even though Casamayor was a former champion. Guerrero struggled in fights against Orlando Salido and Daud Cino Yordan and didn’t impress in either fight.
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