guerrero44444 (Picture credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: Robert Guerrero (31-2-1, 18 KO’s) is expected to win this Saturday night against #7 IBF, #13 WBC Yoshihiro Kamegai (24-1-1, 21 KO’s), but this fight could prove to be a very difficult one for the 31-year-old Guerrero to win. The Japanese fighter has excellent power and should make a good fight of it when Guerrero faces him at the StubHub Center, in Carson, California, USA.

Kamegai is like a more accurate and busier version of Selcuk Aydin. Guerrero will win, but he’s going to get hit a lot in this fight.

Guerrero needs to shine in this fight for him to make a case that he deserves bigger money fights against the top guys. He’d obviously like to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr and/or Manny Pacquiao, but he needs to be impressive against fringe level guys like Kamegai, and more importantly, Guerrero needs to take on someone like Keith Thurman. That fight was reportedly offered to Guerrero following his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr last year, but he failed to accept it.

“I want to thank God for the blessings he’s blessed me with and my entire management team,” Guerrero said. “It’s been a year and it’s time to get back in the ring. Since teaming with CrossFit, I’ve been doing so many different types of exercise and I feel great. I want to thank Kamegai for coming out here from Japan. I’ve seen film on him and he likes to brawl and bang it out and I am the same type of fighter so it will be a very exciting match for both me and the fans who will be watching. I can’t wait for Saturday.”

A win over Thurman would have given Guerrero his most credible victory at 147. His biggest win was against Andre Berto, but that victory hardly meant anything considering that Berto had already been beaten by Victor Ortiz, and has since been stopped by Jesus Soto Karass. Seeing Soto Karass beat Berto, it basically erased Guerrero’s accomplishment and put it into perspective. Guerrero and Soto Karass are about at the same level talent-wise with the exact same fighting style.

This is why Guerrero needs to look good against Kamegai and then step up a level to challenge Thurman, Amir Khan or Shawn Porter. If Guerrero’s idea is just to beat the fringe level guys for the next year or two while calling out Mayweather and Pacquiao, he’ll probably be wasting his time because he’s not going to get a big fight by talking anymore. He needs real victories this time, and not ones over easy marks.

Kamegai is a sucker for a left hook, and that’s probably Guerrero’s best chance of dominating and stopping him on Saturday. Kamegai was hit constantly by left hooks by Jorge Silva in his 10 round draw against him in 2012, and in his 12 round decision loss to Johan Perez last year. If Guerrero wants to make it easy on himself on Saturday night, he’ll throw a lot of left hooks to take advantage of Kamegai’s inability to block them.

Kamegain said, “My weight is no problem and I’m ready to go. I’m here to make a name for myself. I know that people have problems pronouncing my name (“kah may guy”) so I want to make a great impact in this fight so they will learn to say it. Outside the ring I have the utmost respect for Guerrero. But inside, it’s all business. This is will be a good fight, a hard fight and my opportunity to become a mainstay in the fight game. I plan on putting on a very exciting show on Saturday.”