Showtime customers get to see Mayweather vs Guerrero, De Leon vs Mares on Saturday
You don’t have to get your eyes checked. After their sons fought on Saturday, the gracious Floyd Mayweather Sr. wrapped his arms around Ruben Guerrero, la papa de Robert Guerrero, the man who spent the last few weeks being so acrimonious, so scathing, that you figured the two men would surely come to blows. Did they kiss and make up? No, but they did hug. Photo: Al Bello/Getty Images
This past Saturday, Floyd “Money” Mayweather produced another remarkable performance en route to winning a 12-round unanimous decision over Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero on Showtime Pay-per-View before nearly 16,000 fans at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This Saturday, May 11, Showtime will re-air the fight, along with unbeaten Abner Mares‘ exciting ninth-round TKO victory over defending WBC Featherweight World Champ Daniel Ponce De Leon in the co-featured bout at 9 p.m.
Making his first start in a year, Mayweather (44-0, 26 KO’s) showed no signs of ring rust while displaying the trademark speed and quickness, ring generalship, accuracy, intelligence and defensive mastery that’s been his trademark ever since his pro debut on October 11, 1996, 16 years, five months and 7 days earlier. Once again, the hard working, gifted Mayweather appeared to have this built in radar that had him pulling back, slipping right or left or ducking under almost every punch that came his way.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. and his Money team arrive at the press conference at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. All photos: Al Bello/Getty Images
With far less fanfare, Robert Guerrero of Gilroy, CA arrives at the MGM Grand Hotel.
The other headliners (top, l to r) J’Leon Love (l) faces off with Gabriel Rosado (r). Leo Santa Cruz (l) and Alexander Munoz (r) pose for photos. (bottom) Daniel Ponce De Leon (l) and Abner Mares (r) arrive at the MGM Grand Hotel.
The list of celebrity guests with their better halves was a long one.
Can you match the following names with the TV executives, boxers, movie stars and TV personalities that were at the VIP pre-fight party? No help whatsoever – match the names with the following photos: CEO and Chairman of Showtime Networks Inc. Matt Blank, actor Jon Voight, Pooch Hall, President of Showtime Networks Inc., David Nevins, actor Liev Schreiber, TV personality Kevin Frazier (R) and his wife Yazmin Frazier, TV personality Julie Chen, Fermin ‘La Calaca’, recording artist Busta Ryhmes, actor Don Cheadle, boxers Bernard Hopkins, Miguel Cotto, Austin Trout and his wife, Adrien Broner and his better half, NBA player Metta World Peace, All photos: Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
Mayweather received high praise from the following:
Tim Dahlberg of Associated Press: “On the canvas where he does his best work, Mayweather painted a boxing masterpiece only he could produce.”
Gordon Marino in the Wall Street Journal wrote: “Once he found his groove, the multi-division champion put on a bravura boxing clinic. By the end of the night, no one could have any doubts the pugilist from Grand Rapids, Michigan, is the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.”
Greg Bishop of the New York Times: “When it ended, Mayweather hardly celebrated. He thumped his chest and hugged his father. He made it look easy, and it had been. He had landed a staggering 60 percent of his power punches.”
Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports wrote: “The countdown to the end of Floyd Mayweather legendary career began with a brilliant performance in a victory over Robert Guerrero. Mayweather rolled his record to 44-0 and kept alive a dream to end his career with a perfect mark.”
Anonymous: “This was Mayweather’s first fight since being released from jail, and also his first on Showtime instead of HBO. First couple rounds were even. After that, Money was in complete control, almost hitting Guerrero at will with right hand leads, counters, hooks, and effectively timing Guerrero the rest of the way. Nothing more needs to be said when you win on all three scorecards, 117-111.”
Video of the fight
http://www.dalealplay.com/informaciondecontenido.php?con=481128
Interesting comments before and after Guerrero’s performance:
Kevin Mitchell of The Guardian in Las Vegas: “American boxing overflows with praise-the-Lord fighters to the point of parody.”
Denigrator: “In one of the more memorable fights of his career, January 20, 2001, Mayweather fought the undefeated super-featherweight champ Diego Corrales. Before the fight was announced Mayweather stated he wanted to fight Corrales, who was facing jail time for allegedly beating his pregnant wife, “I want Diego because I’m doing it for all the battered women across America. Just like he beat that woman, I’m going to beat him.”
Eleven years and five months later, Mayweather reported to the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas to serve his 87-day jail term for domestic abuse.
The backlash came Wednesday, May 1st, when Ruben Guerrero, Robert’s dad, launched an oath-strewn rant at Mayweather during their final press conference, shouting Mayweather was “a no-good wife-beater” demanding to know why anyone should respect someone who “beats up a woman in front of his own children.” This time, Mayweather remained silent.
Later, when answering questions from the media, Mayweather used a different tact: “You know you have classy and you have trash” plus “I just say a prayer for him.” (snicker, snicker)
The jokester: “Such posturing. Fantastic! Wait, what’s that? There’s also a fight?”
Ruben Guerrero at the conclusion of the bout shouted, “I thought we were going to go toe to toe. He (Mayweather) ran like a chicken!”
The guy who is new to the sport: “Guerrero’s father should’ve been in the ring, he would’ve had a better chance.” Ruben Guerrero, Robert’s father, had a professional record of 0-7 losing six bouts by knock out. The one fighter with whom he was able to go the distance, James Dixon, had a record of 1-12.
Wall Street: “What I can’t see is the disparity in their paychecks – Mayweather received his guaranteed $32 million and Guerrero got $5 million. With the early estimates of the low PPV numbers plus the meager gate receipts, it sure looks like Showtime ends up with the short end of the stick.”
In his defensive stance Mayweather often utilizes the “shoulder-roll,” an old-school boxing technique in which the right hand is held normally (or slightly higher than normal), the left hand is down around the midsection and the lead shoulder is raised high on the cheek in order to cover the chin and block punches. The right hand (as in the orthodox stance) is used as it normally would be to block punches coming from the other side, such as left hooks. From this stance Mayweather blocks, slips and deflects most of his opponents’ punches by twisting left and right to the rhythm of their punches. Boxing historians say one of the first fighters to perfect this technique was Charles Burley. The video on YouTube proves that point.
The Abner Mares TKO win over Daniel Ponce De Leon was a very entertaining bout.
Leo Santa Cruz wasn’t shy about taking a punch in order to deliver even more punches to get his exciting win over Alexander Munoz. All photos: Al Bello/Getty Images
