By Dan Ambrose: WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman (24-0, 21 KOs) and former two division world champion Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (32-2-1, 18 KOs) were both on target with their weighs at Friday’s weigh-in for their fight this Saturday on March 7th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Thurman-Guerrero fight will be televised on NBC as part of the Premier Boxing Champions series. Both Thurman and Guerrero weighed in right at the welterweight limit at 147 pounds.
Thurman, 26, has been promising that he’ll knock Guerrero out on Saturday night. But it’s going to be difficult for Thurman to accomplish that task unless he’s willing to get in the trenches with Guerrero and slug it out.
Thurman doesn’t like to get hit, so it’s hard to picture him being able to score a knockout because he tends to fight cautiously with his back feet poised for him to go into the retreat mode if his opponent comes at him. Guerrero may not be a big puncher, but he’s got enough power and aggression to give Thurman a lot of problems in this fight.
Thurman says he plans on fighting aggressively for the first half of the fight in seeking a KO. If he’s unable to score a knockout by the 6th, then he plans on going into the boxing mode in trying to win a decision. Whatever the case, Thurman can’t afford to be seen running from Guerrero, because that would be a big turnoff to the thousands of fans that will be watching the fight on NBC.
Light welterweight Adrien Broner (29-1, 22 KOs) came in a pound over the limit at 141 pounds for his fight against lightweight John Molina (27-5, 22 KOs). However, Broner didn’t have to take off the extra pound, according to Fightnew.com, due to the contract saying that the weight limit is 140 + 1. But it obviously isn’t a good sign for Broner that he’s not able to make the 140 pound limit, because this is pretty much the only place he can fight now if he wants to try and have any success.
Broner was already beaten by Marcos Maidana at welterweight in September 2013, and it’s not logical to assume that Broner will be able to beat Maidana or some of the other big punching welterweights in the division. Broner has to fight at 140 or 135 if he wants to make something happen with his career.
Broner absolutely has to win this fight if he wants to be taken seriously at 140, Molina is a decent fighter, but he’s not in the league of guys like Lucas Matthysse and Lamont Peterson. These are the type of fighters that Broner will be expected to beat if he ever wants t capture a world champion. The Molina fight is a test for Broner, and he’s got to pass it in flying colors.
Former three division world champion Abner Mares (28-1, 15 KOs) weighed in at 127 pounds for his tune-up fight against 2nd tier fighter Arturo Santos Reyes (18-4, 5 KOs). For his part, Reyes weighed in at 126. Mares needs a win in this fight to set him up for bigger money fights in the future such as a rematch against Jhonny Gonzalez.
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