May Day: Can Guerrero Give Mayweather A Run For His Money?

Coinciding the same week that another major motion picture hits theatres featuring amazing super heroes taking on their cunningly conniving counterparts, the Showtime network brings fans a marvelous boxing PPV for 2013. Headlining the show from the MGM Grand Casino is the true to life iron man, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (43-0), defending his undefeated streak and top “Pound For Pound” status as he takes on multiple division champion, Robert Guerrero (31-1-1).  The bout will be contested at Mayweather’s most comfortably fought at weight of 147-pounds, while his adversary takes only his third swim in the rugged welterweight waters. Not much can be derived from this WBC welterweight title clash that hasn’t already been addressed on the documentaries and buildup leading up to this bout but, it’s what the camera lens can’t capture that creates intrigue for this Las Vegas battle for the May Day: Mayweather vs. Guerrero event.

Mayweather’s inaugural outing under the Showtime banner brings fans a once in a lifetime aura that comes neatly packaged when things are presumably sealed air tight and everything should go as planned.  In this case that assumption by the investors, per say, is that their newly acquired stock should deliver a winning return and deliver big. Just ask the network executives who confidently signed Floyd for upwards of 250 million dollars in an exclusive 6-fight deal, making him the highest paid athlete while further reaffirming the Michigan-born boxer’s “Money Mayweather” moniker.  Standing across the ring ready to play the role of anarchist to the entire operation is Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero, who made the elite list of upper echelon opposition with his recent in-ring accomplishments and gets his chance at making the unbeaten champ’s “O” vanish along with headlining a pay-per-view for the very first time in his career.

Guerrero stamped his ballot to clash with the highly popular Las Vegas resident by successfully outpointing two major players in the welterweight division last year. The first was in his welterweight debut last summer when he defeated then unbeaten, Selcuk Aydin, to capture the Interim WBC Welterweight Title. A few months later in November, Guerrero dispatched of another top 147-pound fighter in Andre Berto. That stellar performance featured Guerrero sending the Haitian fighter to the canvas once in each of the first two rounds before grinding out a unanimous decision win. Ironically enough, “The Ghost” was just fighting at lightweight in 2011 before jumping up two weight classes to terrorize the welterweight division in 2012.

However, skeptics originally stated that he wasn’t supposed to find any luck at the higher weight & critics felt that he would not become a champion either, but he did both and he did so in style. So, what if the Californian pulls out another surprise from his bag of tricks this weekend inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena? The flashy and flamboyant Mayweather opened as an 11 to 1 favorite for the May 4th WBC championship bout, almost as if an extra few points were given to him by odds makers based on the already financial victory of Floyd, “Quarter Billion Dollar” Mayweather. But, it’s usually when everything is expected to go smoothly that things fall apart. The common way to refer to this is Murphy’s Law: if anything can go wrong, it will.

The outcome between these two stars is almost already prewritten, the package is properly packed and the bow is real nice and shiny. Mayweather holds wins over gold medal Olympian boxers, future Hall of Famers and countless top-10 rated fighters. Nonetheless, did the architects of this operation truly consider the unpredictability of this beloved sport? Is “May Day” simply another pay day for Floyd “Money” Mayweather or, will Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero creep in and shock the world?

Photos: Esther Lin/SHOWTIME