I finally watched Guerrero vs. Escobedo in its entirety.

The bulk of it overlapped with Lopez vs. Marquez, so watching it live wasn't an option.

Escobedo got his ass kicked for the most part, but was game and brave and as usual he rallied hard toward the end (he sort of suffers Rocky Juarez Syndrome in that regard...although he gives much better consistent effort than Rocky).

Escobedo was down twice in the 5th round, both officially ruled as slips. Jim Lampley thought they were both legitimate knockdowns, and the 2nd one definitely was.

Guerrero took a few solid right hands, especially when everything was going his way and he became complacent and stopped to admire his work. He still looked very good both offensively and defensively, overall.

Guerrero made a good case for being a worthy challenger waiting in the wings for the winner of Juan Manuel Marquez and Michael Katsidis. In fact - as of this moment I actually favor the Ghost over whoever wins. That person will most likely be coming off a brutal, taxing war. If it's Marquez, that will be one more war on top of many and at a pretty advanced age...only to then go up against a very sharp southpaw who wears lightweight at least as well as he does. If it's Katsidis, he'll have just been through a dust-up with perhaps the technically best offensive fighter in the lower weights and perhaps all of boxing at the moment (despite the age) - and he'll be rushing right in a second consecutive time against someone far more technically skilled than himself and strong to boot. Either way, if the match with Guerrero is within 6-9 months of their own match, Marquez or Katsidis will have difficulty handling someone of his caliber so soon - especially if he remains fresh and doesn't get abused by any surprisingly tough tune-ups in the meantime.

Guerrero demonstrated with this performance that he may finally be shrugging off the cloak of "in-betweenness" that he has been saddled with: many class him as very good but maybe not quite great. IMO, he is over the hump and deserves to be recognized as a great fighter - if only just barely. He doesn't excel in any one area, no. He fights up or down to the level (and enthusiasm) of his opposition, yes. Measuring greatness in consistent effectiveness, though - he is pretty consistently effective at a high enough level to start considering that just "very good" doesn't quite cut it anymore.

Performances like Saturday night's will also go a way towards glossing over the unpleasant memory of his relatively cordial "fight" with Joel Casamayor. He rightfully took a bit of flack for that (and for the unsatisfying Yordan result, which in all honesty he had little control over), but there ought to be a statute of limitation if he continues to step up his game and impress. If Andre freaking Dirrell can rebound and sustain a fanbase after the abomination he perpetrated against Curtis Stevens on national TV, then Guerrero too deserves the benefit of the doubt. Besides, as aesthetically grotesque and tedious as it was, you can at least understand why he didn't relish in trying to savagely beat down his shot friend and mentor. Nobody hates Holmes for not trying to rip Ali's head off, do they? (many other reasons maybe, but not that).