Mayweather produces masterclass against Guerrero to cruise to punch-perfect victory

Floyd Mayweather Jnr came out of prison to elevate boxing to an art.
To describe this maestro simply as the welterweight champion of the world is to do him an enormous disservice of understatement.
To call him the best boxer on the planet is closer to reality but Mayweather transcends that comparison, also.


He made a rough, tough challenger with six world titles of his own at four weight levels to his credit look like a lumbering ox.
Robert Guerrero was so massively outclassed that the 117-111 scoring by the three judges also sold Mayweather short.
On my card Mayweather dropped only the second round in a 119-109 masterclass.
The first had been reasonably close but once Mayweather found his range in the third he set about impaling Guerrero on his lightning rights. Inevitably, the challenger was cut – beside the left eye in the eighth as it happened.
The longer it went the more comfortable Mayweather looked against one of the southpaw breed who have been a minor irritant to him in the past.

So when he let the left join the party we thought it was because he wanted to have more fun. In fact he hurt the right with one of the countless shots to the head.
Without that minor handicap he probably would have stopped Guerrero.
Mayweather was fighting for the first time since coming out of prison, Guerrero almost certainly for the last time before taking his turn in the penitentiary.
Only in boxing.
Mayweather had expressed relief that his two months for battering the mother of his children are behind him but claimed to be  unaffected as a boxer by the experience.
Guerrero is thought to be facing at least two years for carrying a gun into a New York airport but denied being distracted from this job in hand.
One thing was certain, there was bad blood between them. So for this one night they focussed on inflicting the kind of damage on each other would get them both arrested and incarcerated if they did it in the street.


There was  a mixture of cheers and jeers as the cameras picked out Amir Khan among a raft of celebrities at ringside.
Khan had flow into Vegas during the afternoon hoping to press his claims for a super-fight with Mayweather next year.
The loudest roar before the fight was for former world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield.
But although the Garden was full and animated there was not quite the buzz and intensity of anticipation for previous Mayweather fights.
Guerrero came into the ring wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the legend God Is Great, perhaps hoping for divine intervention.
Mayweather arrived in a gold and black robe which resembled a frock coat, befitting the man who considers himself to be almighty.


Guerrero was eager in the early stages of the opening round but despite connecting a couple of times, was mostly picked off by Mayweather’s accurate counters.
The underdog landed with big left early in the second session and, encouraged, did so two or three more times in similar fashion while Mayweather had to be at his most elusive to avoid further punishment.
But by the third round, Mayweather was getting his timing going and connecting with several punishing rights while Guerrero was already wary about throwing the left for fear of leaving himself exposed.
The speed of Money’s right hand continued to bewilder Guerrero and Mayweather also started to introduce more stinging lefts as the fight moved into the fifth stanza. Mayweather, not usually comfortable against southpaws, was easing into command.
Into the sixth round and Guerrero began trying to maul but just couldn't find the champion not only of the world but the defensive arts. The Ghost has a reputation as a dirty fighter and was by now beginning to get desperate as still the rapier right kept stabbing into the his reddening, swelling face.
Mayweather continued to lure his man in and Guerrero was left in a quandary. Aching to land a miracle left, he was clinically lacerated with Mayweather’s right whenever he dared attempt the shot.