Amidst the adulation and hate being thrown at Floyd Mayweather Jr., Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero isn't getting the respect he deserves for giving a valiant effort on Saturday night.
Money did not fight a bum. Guerrero didn't just show up to get a paycheck. He was 31-1 coming into the fight, and he had won titles in four different weight classes.
If he were fighting anyone in the sport besides Mayweather, most would have considered him a worthy challenger. Despite being outclassed, Guerrero tried to employ his game plan; as Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix says, he was simply facing an opponent on another level.
No matter how fans feel about Mayweather, they shouldn't discredit Guerrero.
He passed every test he'd faced before Saturday night, and I contend he would be a handful for most any welterweight in the world—not named Mayweather.
When you look at the other five fighters listed in BoxRec.com's top seven welterweights (Manny Pacquiao, Devon Alexander, Juan Manuel Marquez, Kell Brook and Timothy Bradley), The Ghost would beat or push every one of them.
He has proven his chin against good punchers like Andre Berto and Selcuk Aydin, so Marquez and Pacquiao's power shouldn't be something he couldn't withstand.
Neither of those fighters will move as much as Mayweather, so Guerrero would get the toe-to-toe battle he wants. Brook, Alexander and Bradley are skilled boxers, but none of them are quite as quick as Mayweather.
In addition to that, neither of them has the pop that Pacquiao and Marquez possess.
Can we definitively say that Guerrero would defeat all five of these men? Maybe not, but based on what we've seen from them and Guerrero, The Ghost compares favorably with them.
This group is undoubtedly the cream of the crop at 147 pounds.
Mayweather has shown himself to be head and shoulders above the competition, but that doesn't mean Guerrero is a bad fighter. He has had a stellar career, and he represented himself well in a major championship fight.
That should count for something.
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