Robert Guerrero in the running for Pacquiao’s next fight on Nov. 22nd

By Boxing News - 07/03/2014 - Comments

guerrero444By Chris Williams: #12 WBC Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (32-2-1, 18 KO’s) is reportedly a strong candidate for WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao’s next fight on November 22nd at the Venetian Casino & Resort, in Macao, Macao S.A.R., China. Doghouseboxing.com is reporting that a source close to Team Pacquiao has leaked the news that they’re very interested in having the 31-year-old Guerrero face Pacquiao next.

Guerrero has a cut over his left eye that will need to heal, but it’s not a big cut and he should be ready to fight the Filipino star by November.

Perhaps the logic in selecting Guerrero would be an effort on Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum’s part to try and get more pay-per-view buys. Guerrero has a fairly large following that Arum could pool from to help increase Pacquiao’s diminishing PPV numbers. It’s a good build up fight for a Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr match-up for next May.

A Pacquiao-Guerrero fight could also be a way of showing the different between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr, as Guerrero was soundly beaten by him last year in May. If Pacquiao can somehow look better in beating Guerrero than Mayweather did, it would cause a lot of boxing fans to assume that Pacquiao is a better fighter than Mayweather.

Guerrero didn’t look so great in his last fight against fringe contender Yoshihiro Kamegai in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision on June 21st by the scores 116-112, 117-111 and 117-111 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Guerrero said after the fight that he had intentionally mixed it up with the Japanese fighter rather than using his legs to avoid some of the exchanges, but there was no getting around the fact that Guerrero struggled at times in the fight.

Pacquiao is coming off of a 12 round decision win over Tim Bradley last April in beating him by the scores of 116-112, 118-110 and 116-112. With that rematch out of the way, Arum needs to find new blood for Pacquiao because he’s going to need to wait at least two more years before he can bring Bradley back into the ring with Pacquiao because there’s no point in them fighting anytime soon after the way Bradley looked in losing.

Amir Khan has been quite vocal about wanting to fight Pacquiao in November, but his former trainer Freddie Roach is against the fight taking place, and it’s possible that Roach will use his influence with Pacquiao to make sure that Khan doesn’t get a chance at beating him. Roach might have a feeling that Khan would give Pacquiao problems in the fight with his hand speed and movement.



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