(May 4, 2013; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Floyd Mayweather [black gloves] and Robert Guerrero [red gloves] during their welterweight fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Mayweather won unanimously. Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports)
Floyd Mayweather made his Showtime deal debut a successful one, taking a clear unanimous decision over Robert Guerrero, who got off to a hot start but succumbed to Mayweather's superior skills Saturday. The consensus top boxer in the world fought like it after Guerrero had some early success, and we'll find out later whether his past pay-per-view golden touch kissed this promotion.
Some saw it as a total wipeout or near it, but I saw Guerrero winning the first two rounds, and the 7th. The judges also had it 117-111 each, so either that's a condemnation of me for scoring it identically to three Las Vegas judges or I had it in the right ballpark. Between the rounds Guerrero won, Mayweather's right hand was supreme, and by late in the bout Guerrero was bloodied and cowed, not that he ever completely gave in, but he fought like a guy who was feeling the Mayweather punishment. Once Mayweather got his speed and movement going — Guerrero was surprisingly competitive in the speed department early, and countered Mayweather, of all things — Guerrero looked more like target practice than a fearsome opponent.
Mayweather didn't say after the bout what he'd do next, so whether the next installment of the multi-fight, mega-million Showtime deal is a borderline/full-on shitty bout against the likes of Devon Alexander or Amir Khan, or whether he'll take on the dangerous/big-money likes of junior middleweight Saul Alvarez, we apparently won't know for a while. Until then, so far so good, if not exactly great.
