By Jim Dower: After fighting only once in 2014 in barely getting by the hard-hitting Yoshihiro Kamegai last June, #2 WBC, #8 IBF welterweight contender Robert Guerrero (32-2-1, 18 KOs) says he’s really looking forward to get back in the boxing ring this year.
It’s unclear if the soon to be 32-year-old Guerrero means that he wants to get inside the ring so that he can merely train or if he’s actually interested in fighting again.
Guerrero has done next to nothing since getting a nice payday fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr back in May of 2013. Guerrero lost the fight to Mayweather by a lopsided 12 round decision. Guerrero then took the remainder of 2013 and half of 2014 off.
Guerrero basically threw away a year of his career sitting idle after the Mayweather fight. It wasn’t until last June that Guerrero fought Kamegai and took a lot of punishment in winning the fight. Guerrero later said that he could have made the fight easier, but he chose to slug with Kamegai on purpose.
“Great way to start the New Year with a beautiful run this morning! Can’t wait to get in the ring in 2015! #TeamGhost,” Guerrero said on his Twitter.
Guerrero is going to need to start getting active if he wants to get another crack at a world title. He says he wants to get a rematch with Mayweather, but that’s obviously not going to happen. Even if were possible, Guerrero is doing nothing to put himself in position to force a fight.
If Guerrero had simply stayed active, he would be in position right now to fight for the WBC title. Of course, Guerrero might have suffered another loss or two if he’d fought several times in 2014 another time in 2013. He probably missed out on four fights by not staying active.
The problem that Guerrero has is those fights wouldn’t have paid him the kind of money that he got against Mayweather, but at least they would have put him in position to get a crack at one of the titles.
Guerrero is going to have a difficult time trying to compete against the current crop of top fighters in the welterweight division. For him to compete with the best, he’d have to face guys like Keith Thurman, Amir Khan, Marcos Maidana, Shawn Porter and Sadam Ali. Those are tough fights for Guerrero, especially with all the time off he’s had from boxing since 2013.
It’s quite possible that Guerrero won’t be able to beat any of the top fighters in the welterweight division. I’m talking about the real top of the division, not simply the entire top 15. However, Guerrero could be matched up with more fringe contenders until one of the sanctioning bodies ranks him high enough to face someone like IBF champion Kell Brook.
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