Just to confirm, the fact that Guerrero broke his hand in the 4th round changes the entire complexion of his performance last night. It was simply masterful
I wonder if he went into the fight injured, because I've never seen Guerrero pitty pat his shots like that, ever. 1200 punches says he put in serious work with Shane in Big Bear. Masterful though? That's an overstatement.
How is it an overstatement? He beat a good fighter in Klassen with a broken left hand. The guy is a southpaw. He forgot everything he ever knew about his style, and won the fight on the back foot throwing combination's and punching. It was masterful. Guerrero is a hard puncher, he likes to sit down on his shots and hurt his opponent. He made all of the significant changes to pull the fight out. He's 26, it was a masterful performance. I hope people realise what a broken hand means in the sport of Boxing. It should be the difference between winning and losing at the highest level. I think he was injured before the first bell even rang, because from the opening round he was throwing pitty patter punches and moving. He looked elusive in there at times, but he is a much better fighter when he is throwing hard shots and exchanging with his opponent. He even hurt Klassen to the body early despite having nothing in his shots. I think if the real Guerrero was there, that fight would have looked a whole different, and Klassen would have done well to see the final bell. It's all speculation. Robert Guerrero changed up in strategy against a very good opponent in a world title fight. His hand was injured, confirmed to be broken from the 4th round onwards. Considering Guerrero's usual style, he deserves a to of credit for pulling that fight out in the manner he did. He should not be judged on this fight alone.
That's another thing - he needs a corner overhaul ASAP. His trainer sounded nervous as **** when that cut first opened up, and didn't hide it well. Not cool.
I'd say he's going a long ways toward making people who question his heart look silly, and I'd say he's building a rep for himself as someone with excellent conditioning. Anyone who can keep up that kind of pace at a world class level over the championship distance has my respect. We're not really arguing much here. You were just more impressed by Klassen than I was.
Not at all, I was more impressed with Guerrero than you were. I could tell something was up. Why the hell didn't the so-called experts on the commentator panel mention anything? Have they never seen Guerrero fight before?
It's actually very possible. He was a Showtime product coming up, and the chance they'd have had to really watch him got cut short by the Yordan NC2.
It's like Paulie coming out and sitting down on his shots and never throwing the jab. Bizarre turn of events.
I could defo see RG hurting his hand against Klassen's defense. (Tucked elbows & tight shell, + Battering ram for a head.... reminds of Clottey)
He showed such immense heart and spectacular (but just not as superior) offensive skill in the Marquez losses, I wanted so badly for him to reign after Rafa moved up. Hope he can rebound from the Perez setback and get something going.
I like Guerrero, but something is certainly missing. Not sure how to put my finger on it. I have the feeling as soon as he meets a true elite he will loose. He seems to be lacking some things and looked vulnerable last night at times.