Robert Guerrero did not put up much of a fight against Floyd Mayweather on Saturday and ended up losing by unanimous decision. However, he certainly had a chance in this one.
As an experienced boxer with a long history of beating tough competitors, the Ghost could have given his opponent a much better challenge. His ability to throw hard punches had the potential to cause damage, and then the end of the bout would have been much closer.
Unfortunately, he made numerous mistakes throughout the 12 rounds, and it cost him the victory.
If anyone future wants to do a better job against Mayweather, he will have to avoid these errors in the matchup.
Do Not Be Too Flat-Footed
Guerrero's father and trainer, Ruben, was upset about the way that Mayweather danced around the ring throughout the match. He told Rick Reeno of Boxingscene.com:
I didn't expect him to [move] that much, but after Robert hit him in the first couple of rounds, he felt it and that put him on a bicycle. I tried to tell Robert to go to more. But he saw that Robert was going to the body and he ran more. You seen it, the last couple of rounds, he really ran. He didn't want to exchange. All he wanted to do was win by decision.
While this turn of events might not have pleased the Guerrero camp, Mayweather is well within his right to go for a decision.
The champ was able to back out of trouble and wait for his opponent to come to him. At that point, Money was able to land plenty of power shots that Guerrero simply walked into.
If you want to stick with Mayweather over the course of a fight, you have to match his activity. In this one, he controlled the entire bout and was able to do whatever he wanted. By moving around the ring, a challenger could force the talented fighter to come out of his comfort zone.
Be Less Aggressive
Guerrero threw much fewer punches than usual in this fight, but he still appeared way too wild in the ring.
According to Compubox, he only landed 19 percent of his punches throughout the fight. While his power-punching was slightly better at 28 percent, this is still a terrible number in a big matchup like this.
Things got even worse in later rounds as Guerrero was simply trying to cause any damage possible on his opponent. This strategy did not work out.
Against someone like Mayweather who is incredible strong defensively, it is important to let opportunities come to you. If you try to reach, he will duck out of the way and come back with a strong counter-punch.
Money has great instincts and knows when an opponent is trying to come at him with a flurry of shots. Instead of throwing punches wildly, a fighter would be better off remaining at his own speed and landing big hits that cause more damage.
Do Not Let Mayweather Get Comfortable
Much of the discussion coming into this bout was whether or not Mayweather would be rusty after going a year without competing.
In the first round, the elite fighter did not look like himself and was less than stellar. He appeared a little slow to defend and he was unable to land shots at a high rate.
Of course, Money was able to get his footing by the middle rounds and eventually took over. From Round 4 to Round 10, Mayweather completed over 65 percent of his power punches in all but one round (via Compubox). This is an incredible rate and tough for anyone to overcome.
By the middle of the fight, Guerrero was simply going through the motions as Mayweather tore him apart.
Things could have been different if the challenger was able to sustain momentum from a solid first round. Unfortunately, he fell apart and allowed Mayweather to get into a zone.
This was the beginning of the end for Guerrero, and any fighter would have suffered the same fate by that point. You have to keep the other boxer out of the rhythm (especially one as skilled as Mayweather) to give yourself a chance to succeed.
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