(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Chris Williams: ESPN analyst Teddy Atlas is picking Floyd Mayweather Jr. (43-0, 26 KO’s) to defeat Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (31-1-1, 18 KO’s) in their fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Atlas sees Mayweather as being too fast, too big and too talented for the roughhouse Guerrero in this fight. Atlas expects Guerrero to try and get in close to smother’s speed and work rate, but ultimately he doesn’t see this working for Guerrero.
Atlas said on ESPN: “Whether the time off, and for Mayweather it is going to affect him, of course it’s going to affect him, it has to affect him. I don’t know how much, you don’t know how much, none of us know how much when he gets in the ring. When you’re a timing fighter, you’re a speed fighter, when you’re a finesse fighter, all of these things that Mayweather is; you’re not just a walk in guy, time off bothers you more than a walk in guy. A walk in guy doesn’t need timing; he just needs strength, determination and a good chin, but when you have timing, yeah, it throws it off a bit, but he has that zero that gives him confidence; he doesn’t know how to lose. He has the experience. I don’t know if it will affect him as much as someone else, but guaranteed to a certain degree it will affect him. If it affects him, the time off, it will affect him early. That rust will affect him early on while he’s trying to get of that where the timing is. That’s where I think Guerrero can get out of the chute quickly and needs to. He’s an underdog for a reason. He needs to get out of the chute quickly. I think Guerrero, a southpaw, comes at you the wrong way. He’s going to give you problems, and he’s a grinder; he’s a real game guy, he’s a world champion, he’s a guy that knows how to win; he’s a guy that throws a lot of punches at you and tries to smother you on the inside, and he’s not as fast and not as big as Mayweather; he might be a little too small for Mayweather. Most of the good work for Guerrero has been at featherweight, but having said all that, he’s a guy that will try to get on the inside and smother the experience and speed of Mayweather. If Mayweather has any kind of flaws, I think his greatest asset is his flaw – his speed and his defense. He’s a real defensive fighter, but you can take his speed away if you get in close, and he goes too defensive too much sometimes and he forgets his offense. There are odd spots where you can out-work him, odd spots you can out-hustle him, and I think Guerrero’s going to look for those spots to get inside and outwork Mayweather. I think it’s going to be a competitive fight, a good fight to watch. At the end of the fight it’s going to be the guy that’s better, the guy who’s faster, the guy who’s undefeated, the guy who’s bigger who doesn’t know how to lose and that’s Mayweather staying undefeated.”
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