By Bill Phanco: Leonard Ellerbe, one of Floyd Mayweather Jr’s advisers, has reported that Mayweather will be fighting on May 4th [Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo] and September 14th in 2013. Mayweather has two dates but no opponents to fill those dates. The chances of a Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight for the first date on May 4th isn’t going to happen.
Pacquiao will be fighting on April 20th, and his promoter Bob Arum has already said that Brandon Rios will likely get that fight. Golden Boy Promotions, who Mayweather works with but isn’t promoted by, is looking to match Mayweather against either Robert Guerrero or Saul Alvarez for the May fight date. However, the guy that will get that fight is without a doubt Guerrero, the WBC interim welterweight champion who recently raised his own boxing stock by beating Andre Berto and Selcuk Aydin. Alvarez will likely get his shot against Mayweather at some point, probably in 2014 on Cinco de Mayo.
Ellerbe said to espn “Richard Schaefer [CEO of Golden Boy Promotions] is finalizing the opponent and other aspects of the upcoming promotion.”
It’s going to be Guerrero. He’s a much lesser threat than the younger and much harder punching Alvarez. Mayweather can probably still beat Alvarez as well, but he’s definitely a much tougher opponent to crack than Guerrero. The only thing that Mayweather would have to worry about with Guerrero is not letting him force him to the ropes like Guerrero did with Berto, and making sure to keep moving constantly.
Guerrero likes to throw a lot of punches and he’ll probably look to overwhelm Mayweather’s shoulder roll defense by throwing tons of shots. This is what Guerrero did against Berto when he adopted a crude version of the shoulder roll. Guerrero simply nailed him with straight left hands and then threw so massive of shots that overwhelmed Berto’s shoulder roll defense.
Don’t count on Mayweather fighting Pacquiao in September because Arum will likely have someone else scheduled for Pacquiao for later in 2013. We could see either Marquez or Tim Bradley facing Pacquiao again in the second half of next year.