Floyd Mayweather vs. Robert Guerrero Results: Ghost Squanders Golden Opportunity

It's hard to root against a guy like Robert Guerrero.

Regardless of your religious affiliation—I personally sway as far away from him as possible—his faith is admirable, and the way it manifests itself in genuine good deed is even more praiseworthy. He's a family man who helped his wife fight cancer, and took care of his children in the process. All while carrying out a successful career as a professional boxer.

I was rooting for you, Ghost. I really was. But you couldn't have let me down much worse.

Maybe it's because I wanted him to win so bad, but I genuinely talked myself into his chances of winning. Not enough that I ever thought about wagering, but enough that I felt validated after Rounds 1 and 2.

He looked aggressive out of the gate, taking the fight to his ballyhooed opponent and actually connecting on some decent punches. Mayweather doesn't mind boxers who throw at him; he only cares about boxers who hit him. And for a while, that's what Robert Guerrero was doing.

But then the wheels fell off.

Per the official scorecard (h/t SI.com), Mayweather won the following rounds unanimously: 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11. That's eight out of nine. And if he really needed to win the 12th, which consisted of little more than Mayweather's attempted grapples—a veritable victory formation—there's little to believe he wouldn't have.

So what gives? Why was Guerrero so tired? Was he woefully out of shape (doubtful) or woefully unprepared (likely). Did the adrenaline get to him and force him to expend all his energy early, or was that his genuine game plan? Either way, it wasn't a good strategy to go by.

The result, at times, was rather ugly. On the whole, Guerrero did hold his own...I guess. I mean, he didn't look like he didn't belong in a pay-per-view fight on May Day. But at times—long stretches of time—he looked liked the undercard would have suited him much better.

When the dust settled, and the champion's belt retained, Guerrero had connected on a whopping 19 percent of his punches. 19 percent. That's below the Mendoza Line. Mayweather, on the other hand, was batting over .400—41 percent to be precise (h/t Compubox)—like a young Ty Cobb, or one of those six-foot man-children in the Little League World Series.

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Final ShoStats for #MayweatherGuerrero @floydmayweather @shosports twitter.com/CompuBox/statu…

— CompuBox (@CompuBox) May 5, 2013"

In his post-fight interview, Robert Guerrero iterated that he'd love to, eventually, get another chance to fight Floyd Mayweather. But is that honestly a realistic course of action? After Mayweather just made him look like a Pokemon after five straight sand-attacks? How on earth would promoters sell a rematch of a fight where one guy connected on 19 percent of his punches?

It would take a hell of a hot streak to ever make that rematch sound palatable. And no matter how pointed the trash talk got leading up to the fight, Mayweather doesn't feel enough of a personal grudge to insist upon it. Which means Guerrero would need to go on some sort of hot streak in his next few fights if he wants to warrant another pay-per-view event.

But does the competition even exist for that hot streak to come about? Won't the best opponents be jockeying to be Mayweather's next opponent, not his latest victim's?

No, for Robert "Ghost" Guerrero—who, at 30 years of age, isn't exactly a spring chicken himself—this appears to have been a once-in-a-career opportunity. And even with a nation of people on his side, wishing to see Mayweather's well-deserved comeuppance, it's an opportunity he very much squandered.