Robert Guerrero needs a new trainer badly

By Boxing News - 06/22/2014 - Comments

guerrero5By Scott Gilfoid: In watching Robert Guerrero (32-2-1, 18 KO’s) go life and death with a fringe level contender in Yoshihiro Kamegai (24-2-1, 21 KO’s) last night, I think I speak for everyone here when I say he needs to think seriously about dumping his current trainer Ruben Guerrero and find a real trainer that can improve his game.

It was just awful to watch Guerrero getting beaten up by a guy who arguably shouldn’t be ranked in the top tier if the welterweight division’s talent wasn’t watered down by 4 sanctioning bodies.

Guerrero won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision, but he looked bad of terms of skills and showed zero adjustments to what the hard hitting Kamegai was doing in the ring. Guerrero got the win by the scores of 116-112, 117-111, and 117-111, but boy did he look terrible in there. Guerrero used no head movement, fought like his feet were stuck in quick-drying cement, and stood ramrod straight up like a tall stork. He was begging to be punched in the puss all night by Kamegai, and the Japanese fighter obliged him by smacking him upside the head at every chance he could get.

Guerrero needs to dump Ruben before it’s too late and get on with someone like Freddie Roach from the Wildcard Gym to help turn his career around. I mean, look what Roach did with Miguel Cotto. That dude looked totally shot before Roach got his hands on him, and look at him now. Cotto might be the best fighter in the 160lb division.

Guerrero showed no improvement from his fight against Mayweather, and that’s really disappointing to say the least. Obviously it might not feel good for Guerrero to dump his own father as his trainer, but if he’s smart he’ll make the move, because he’s not going anywhere in the division unless he improves dramatically.

With the way that Guerrero fought last night, I wouldn’t be surprised if guys like Amir Khan is licking his chops, and circling overhead looking to dive bomb on Guerrero in his next fight to take his scalp to add to his growing collection of fighters who appear to be on the downsides of their careers. Heck, Guerrero was a good fighter at featherweight, super featherweight and lightweight, but now he just looks like he’s become a crude slugger at 147.

Oh yeah, Guerrero was full of excuses afterwards, saying “I’m not a runner. The fans, they love it. I like to give the fans what they want, so I stayed in there to mix it up with him.”

I think Guerrero is still in the denial stage about his poor effort last night. I hope he can sit down later today with a strong cup of coffee and watch the fight again with an open mind to see how awful he looked.

If this had been someone like Shawn Porter or Keith Thurman in the ring with him instead of the fringe level Kamegai, Guerrero would have been totally obliterated. Maybe that’s why Guerrero told Showtime’s interviewer Jim Gray that he’d never heard of Thurman when Gray asked him after the fight if he’d be up for a fight against him. That right there told me that Guerrero wanted absolutely no part of Thurman.



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