Guerrero hungry for shot at Mayweather, but it won’t be May 5
“The Ghost” and Mr. Mayweather.
Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero, a five-time, three-weight champion, wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. so badly that he has become obsessed by it.
Guerrero is sure he would “shock the world” and become the first to knock off Mayweather (42-0, 26 KOS) after studying arguably the world’s top poundfor-pound fighter for years.
Guerrero and Mayweather surely will have their showdown someday.
It just won’t be May 5 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer has removed Guerrero from the list of Mayweather’s possible opponents.
Bob Arum, chairman of box- ing’s other dominant promotional company, Top Rank, appears to have taken his meal ticket, Manny Pacquiao, out of the May 5 equation, too, saying the fight needs a bigger venue than 16,500-seat MGM Grand Garden Arena, and Pacquiao needs a little more time to heal a cut from his November win vs. Juan Manuel Marquez that took 29 stitches.
Arum said Thursday that he could have a temporary 45,000seat stadium built in Las Vegas by late May or early June, which he said would add up to $30 million in gate revenue, and they could try to get Mayweather’s 90-day jail sentence moved back to June 15, from June 1.
That is unlikely to fly with Golden Boy and Team Mayweather, leaving his likely opponent Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who at 21 is nearly 14 years younger than Mayweather.
Schaefer says Guerrero, 28, who fights for Golden Boy, will get his chance — someday.
“I have no doubt he’s going to get a Mayweather fight,” Schaefer told USA TODAY on Thursday. “You have to understand that a lot of the fans, the media, the networks, the sponsors, the venues are concerned that he has been out (since April 2011) with a rotator cuff injury.
“Now he’s better and can fight again, and I think he needs to have a fight where he can show everybody he’s back and bigger, stronger and faster than ever. And have a signature fight at a higher weight. He fought at 135 (pounds), and Mayweather fought at 147.”
Guerrero says the weight difference might work in his favor.
“I think it would benefit me a lot,” he said during a phone interview Wednesday. “As I’ve gone up in weight, I’ve gotten better and better. Floyd weighs in at 147 and fights at 150 or 151. He fights near his natural weight.
“I weigh in at 135, I fight at 151 or 152 every time. I come in at my natural weight when I fight. It would benefit me not to have to lose that 7-8 pounds.”
Schaefer said it was Mayweather who nixed Guerrero as a May 5 foe. “Do I think (Guerrero) has a very good chance of beating Mayweather? Yes. Do I think he will eventually get the Mayweather fight? Absolutely,” Schaefer said. “Mayweather is looking at other options. Mayweather’s his own boss, and he’s going to decide on who he wants to fight.”
Schaefer said he would absolutely consider putting Guerrero on the May 5 Mayweather undercard to get him the exposure needed to move him to the front of the line to fight “Money.”
As for Mayweather’s Cinco de Mayo opponent, “Floyd’s looking at everything,” Schaefer said, “and we hope to have something to announce in the next couple of days.”