By Dan Ambrose: Robert Guerrero (29-1-1, 18 KO’s) defeated Australian Michael Katsidis (27-4, 22 KO’s) by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada to capture the WBA and WBO interim lightweight titles. Guerrero stood and traded with the hard hitting Katsidis for 12 rounds, taking his best shots and firing back hard punches of his own. In the end, Guerrero’s work rate and sharp punching was the difference in the fight.

The referee blew a knockdown of Guerrero in the 3rd, but it hardly mattered. Guerrero still ended up dominating the fight. After the bout, Guerrero said he wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr., Marcos Maidana, Juan Manuel Marquez or Zab Judah next. Unfortunately, Guerrero lacks the popularity to get even one of those fighters next. He’ll likely have to settle for trying to fight someone like Miguel Acosta or John Molina and be happy with that.

Guerrero is a good fighter, but his fighting style lacks the excitement that Maidana brings to the ring and he doesn’t have the fast hands that Judah or Mayweather bring to the table. And Marquez looks to be a much better all around fighter compared to Guerrero, and is exciting to watch because of his counter punching ability. Those fighters are looking for big names and Guerrero simply isn’t a big enough name to get noticed by any of them. If Guerrero wants to start facing guys like Maidana, Judah, Mayweather and Marquez, he’s going to have to move up in weight and start going after the top contenders at light welterweight and welterweight.

There isn’t enough big names at lightweight for Guerrero to lure any of the big names to give him a chance at a big money fight. Guerrero has to move up and try put pressure on those guys by beating the top fighters in the light welterweight division. I’m not sure if Guerrero has the size to move up yet another time. He’s already moved up from featherweight to lightweight in the past three years.

It might be asking too much of his body to move up another division to light welterweight. He’s got the height to move up at 5’8″, but he’s not a huge puncher and will have problems against the likes of Maidana and Lucas Matthysse. At the same time, Guerrero would have problems with the speed of someone like Timothy Bradley. I can’t see Guerrero beating him.