One of the most anticipated fights of the year ended with Floyd Mayweather defeating Robert Guerrero by unanimous decision.
While the bout went all 12 rounds, it was never really close. The judges scored it heavily in Money's favor, according to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated:
In reality, even this score was misleading, because the rounds that Guerrero won were still really close. Mayweather had control of the entire match and was able to do whatever he wanted.
Still, we can learn a lot from this fight from the perspective of each fighter.
Robert Guerrero
While Robert Guerrero is a talented boxer with a great career, he is simply not in the same class as Mayweather.
He showed his toughness in the fight by continuing to come out strong round after round, but he did not have the speed or technique of his opponent. The Ghost could not defend the quick attacks and he could not land his power punches to cause any damage.
It is hard to imagine any scenario where Guerrero would have come out on top in this matchup.
This is what happens when you face the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world, but the fact that he was not even competitive was a bad sign. It showed that he does not have what it takes to keep battling boxers of this caliber.
The welterweight division is loaded with talented and experienced boxers. It is tough to imagine Guerrero doing much better against the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez or Timothy Bradley.
Although he had a 31-1-1 record going into his latest fight, very few of these battles were against the elite competitors in the division. His most recent victories against Selcuk Aydin and Andre Berto were solid, but they are both still a big step below the top fighters.
Guerrero deserved this opportunity to face Mayweather, but he should not get another high-profile match for a long time. It appears that being an interim champion will be the best he will do.
Floyd Mayweather
The biggest thing that Floyd Mayweather showed us is that he is still a superior fighter. The fact that he is 36 years old and took 12 months off did not affect him at all.
His quickness and precision were on display on Saturday, and he barely allowed his opponent to get a clean hit on him throughout the match.
There should be no one doubting who is the best pound-for-bound boxer in the world.
Of course, this also means that he needs to raise his level of competition to keep fans interested. You can only watch a slow beatdown over inferior opponents so many times.
Mayweather needed to fight Guerrero as the interim welterweight champion, but his next match needs to be a little more exciting.
Bleacher Report's Alfred "Big Nasty" Konuwa discusses the possibility of a battle between the champ and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.
Considering the current landscape of boxing, there might not be a better opponent out there.
Obviously, fans will always clamor for Pacquiao, although this seems less likely after two consecutive losses for Pacman.
Regardless of who is Mayweather's next opponent, all people want to see is someone give him a challenge to make the fight be worth the price of the pay-per-view.
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