By Bill Phanco: WBC interim welterweight champion Robert Guerrero’s 12 round unanimous decision win over former IBF/WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto last Saturday night has earned Guerrero a new #3 rankings with Ring Magazine’s welterweight rankings. Guerrero is now below only 1. Manny Pacquiao and #2 Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Guerrero is ranked above Kell Brook, Paulie Malignaggi, Jan Zaveck, Tim Bradley, Victor Ortiz, Devon Alexander, and Vyacheslav Senchenko.
To get the #3 ranking, Guerrero also beat former undefeated welterweight Selcuk Aydin by a 12 round unanimous decision last July.
Guerrero’s win was a good one, but I don’t agree with his rankings. I still don’t see him as a #3 or a top #10 welterweight despite the victory over a rusty Berto, who hadn’t fought in 14 months and who made a huge blunder by using the Mayweather shoulder roll defense that he’d never used in a fight before. That was a big mistake on Berto’s part because you don’t make huge changes in your game overnight when you’ve been a pro for many years. These kinds of things take time, and your try something out in parts instead of making a major change like Berto did.
Here’s my top 10 for the welterweight division:
1. Floyd Mayweather Jr
2. Manny Pacquiao
3. Devon Alexander
4. Mike Jones
5. Kell Brook
6. Victor Ortiz
7. Tim Bradley
8. Luis Carlos Abregu
9. Marcos Maidana
10. Carson Jones
I see Guerrero as coming in at 12 behind Vyacheslav Senchenko. Guerrero has done a good job in his two fights at welterweight, but he’s not been impressive at all and he’s had a lot of help in that he’s fought limited fighters in Berto and Aydin. Those two fighters are badly flawed, and Berto is going downhill. He’s not the fighter he once was and he likely won’t be able to regain what he’s lost through age, injuries and inactivity. He’s 29, and he’s fights like he’s 10 years older than that.