Rodrigo Guerrero's Manager Should Be Convicted

Rodrigo Guerrero is a a 22-year-old exciting boxing prospect out of Mexico. He was a very respectable 13-1 with nine knockouts and fighting at Super Featherweight.

Inexplicably, irrevocably, his managers decided to throw him to the wolves.

They decided to allow him to fight Vic Darchinyan last night on Showtime.

Darchinyan, with the possible exception of Nonito Donaire, is undoubtedly the most feared fighter at Super Featherweight, and perhaps even Bantamweight.

He's a relentless, powerful southpaw with a jaw of granite and a mean streak the length of Interstate Five.

Why match Guerrero up at this point and time in a fight he had absolutely no chance of winning?

Guerrero is a promising fighter. He showed poise, good hand speed, and a true warrior's heart. He was never in the fight with Darchinyan. I had him losing all twelve rounds.

I still don't know how he kept standing with some of the shots that Darchinyan was landing.

If I was a trainer, I would have stopped the fight around the seventh round when Guerrero had lost every round.

Why let your fighter endure that kind of abuse?

But no, there was his idiot trainer, telling him to fight harder each round.

Guerrero should have a very bright future in front of him, but he needed about six or eight more fights against lesser opponents before stepping into the ring with someone like Darchinyan.

The kid only had 20 fights at the amateur level.

It's just another example of how dirty the fight game is.

How self-serving trainers and promoters run the game and fighters pay the price.

If I had to guess, I'd say that his manager took the fight for the money, without thinking of his fighter's future.

Some short-term cash without thinking of the long-term consequences.

I don't know if Guerrero will be the same fighter. He's very young, so he has that in his favor. But beat downs have a way of damaging fighters, some never recover.

Just ask Jermaine Taylor.

Yes, Darchinyan looked great, but that was a given.

He always looks great.

This is about putting in a pup with a pit bull.

I'd like to see Guerrero fight again. He needs to learn to sit on his punches and generate more power, but he can be a champion.

Now all he needs is better management.