by Peter Broderick Before Robert Guerrero’s fight against Andre Berto, I predicted a stoppage by the latter. I called the fight a mismatch and expected Berto to impose his physicality, speed and punching power on Guerrero, forcing him to try to find respite on the ropes as Berto cut him down. I was completely wrong. I didn’t give Guerrero enough credit pre-fight and I gave Berto too much.
Underestimating the Ghost: My main reason for disregarding Guerrero as a contender in this fight was that he had only recently moved up in weight, and having seen him limp to a victory over Selcuk Aydin I thought what the majority of people who watched the fight did, that Guerrero had lost his punching power during his rapid climb to welterweight. The other reason was that I thought Guerrero could only fight one way, and that was on the outside. I couldn’t see him being allowed time to execute his game plan by Berto. The strategy that Guerrero did employ was inspired (although at times not strictly legal). His chin is outstanding, the uppercuts Berto was throwing were landing flush for the duration of the fight but Guerrero stayed on his feet when he had no right to, it was a showcase of Guerrero’s hunger and stubbornness and must have been disheartening for Berto to find all his punches landing on granite.
It was Guerrero’s inside game that really surprised me. I’d never seen him as a rough house fighter before and his ability to spoil completely destroyed Berto’s gameplan as he was never able to get into a good range to utilise his superior hand speed. Every time he looked up Guerrero was there, leaning on him, throwing a huge volume of punches and then tying him up.
Overestimating Berto: I didn’t expect Berto to fight imitating the Mayweather/Broner defense. He looked uncomfortable with the stance and was getting tagged at will using it. All it did for Berto was make it impossible to throw a left hook so Guerrero only had 1 hand to worry about. I thought he was going to start much quicker too, he took too long to feel out his opponent and spent much too long on the ropes, playing to Guerrero’s strengths, although this might have been due to his damaged eye, he might have found it easier to invite Guerrero on rather than walk into him blindly. When Guerrero said before the fight that Berto had a glass chin I thought he was just blowing smoke, I’d seen Berto drop a few times in his fight with Victor Ortiz but those shots would have knocked anyone, it turns out Guerrero was right, Berto really should be able to stand up to some of the hits he took early on but he looked like he was considering bowing out of the fight after just a few hits before he regained his composure but at that point, with his eye beginning to close, the damage had been done. Berto is a good fighter but isn’t anywhere near the top because of his leaky defense. He has a ‘you hit me, I’ll hit hit you back’ mentality, that just won’t work against good guys. We may have seen his last fight on HBO.
Guerrero’s cause was helped by two huge factors. Those being that Berto’s eye was closed early from being scraped by Guerrero’s thumb in the first round, and the referee’s performance which saw him allow Guerrero to hold Berto’s head in place with his right hand and then nail him with his left 3 times for the first knockdown then continue to allow Guerrero to lean all over Berto for the whole fight. Although on the other hand Berto did wrap his left arm around his opponent’s right several times which also went unnoticed. I felt sorry for Berto after he was warned for punching the back of Guerro’s head when he had no other choice on two occasions, however, I think the referee can be forgiven in this case as the fighters’ health must be his number 1 priority, knowing how dangerous those punches can be. But all in all the better fighter won on the night. Berto allowed himself to be bullied and paid for it.
For me there’s still question marks over Guerrero’s defense and his power, and I don’t see him being able to beat Mayweather, Pacquiao, Cotto, but I’d like to see him take on someone like Paulie Malignaggi or Victor Ortiz as he has proven himself to be a quality welterweight, infact he reminds me of Arturo Gatti and I’m looking forward to seeing him fight in the future. He’s proved all of his doubters, including me, wrong and has stamped himself firmly in the top 10 welterweight rankings and justifiably so.
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