Posts tagged Leo Santa Cruz
Floyd Mayweather Makes It Look Easy Against Robert Guerrero
Photo by Tom Casino for Showtime
by Gautham Nagesh
Welterweight Floyd “Money” Mayweather cemented his status as boxing’s pound-for-pound king by picking apart Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero on Showtime Pay Per View in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Floyd looked supremely comfortable against the overmatched Guerrero, who becomes the 44th notch on Mayweather’s unblemished record. Mayweather was landing his straight right hand from the outset, and made Guerrero look foolish at points. Guerrero’s heart and effort can’t be questioned, but he was simply not on the same level as the superlative Mayweather, who somehow impressed despite being the heavy favorite.
Preview: Floyd Mayweather vs Robert Guerrero
Photos by Tom Casino for Showtime
by Gautham Nagesh
Genius rarely takes an appealing form. But make no mistake, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is a boxing genius, on par with any fighter that has laced up a pair of gloves.
History is littered with countless examples of great men whose personal failings were whitewashed in light of their achievements. Boxing is no different; Sonny Liston was a violent criminal before becoming heavyweight champion, Don King a convicted murderer long before his first promotion. Boxing has been run by crooks and criminals, thieves and low-rent thugs. Many of them are still around. It’s hardly a place for the pious or self-righteous.
Robert Guerrero is both of those things; central casting couldn’t have produced a better champion for the throngs of Floyd-haters than “The Ghost.” His arrest for gun possession not withstanding, Guerrero is the perfect fighter to play the hero to Floyd’s heel. Guerrero’s main backstory is his devotion to his wife, a cancer survivor. He spends every interview praising God and playing the humble Mexican-American fighter, while Floyd shamelessly preens and flaunts his wealth.
But the beauty of boxing is that once the bell sounds, nothing matters but what happens inside the ropes. And no one in the world is more comfortable in the boxing ring than Floyd Mayweather. He remains a superb stylist, a fluid and elegant counterpuncher of the first order with a preternatural talent for avoiding punches. Guerrero, on the other hand, is a dirty fighter, and one that has never scored a knockout above lightweight. His only hope is to hurt Mayweather with something other than a fist and hope the referee doesn’t notice.
Too Much Canelo: Alvarez Stops Smaller Josesito Lopez
Photos by Tom Casino for SHOWTIME
by Gautham Nagesh
Mexican junior middleweight sensation Saul “Canelo” Alvarez was simply too big and too strong for Josesito Lopez on Saturday night. Alvarez methodically imposed his will on the game, but overmatched Lopez, scoring three knockdowns with body shots on the way to a 5th-round stoppage at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Lopez showed once again that his heart is as big as anyone in the boxing game, but the rest of him wasn’t enough to trouble Canelo. Lopez took a significant amount of damage before referee Joe Cortez finally stepped in to stop the carnage.
“Canelo’s a badass,” Lopez admitted after the fight. “We felt good. But I think the size was pretty different.”
