Will father time catch up with Money Mayweather or will the Ghost be busted? A look at the key talking points ahead of Saturday fight night in Vegas... Over the years many great fighters have tried and failed to unpick the puzzle that is Floyd Mayweather; Oscar De La Hoya, Sugar Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez and Miguel Cotto are but a handful that have come up short. However with an unexpected 30 month, 6 fight contract with HBO penned earlier this year, each fight for Mayweather is now becoming more intriguing than the last. For no longer is he simply facing opponents in the ring; he is now at war with father time as well. It is not for want of trying to ignore, but there are murmurs around town and now a glimmer of hope among his roster of hungry opponents that the aura of invincibility once surrounding Money Mayweather has shown a coin sized chink in its armour. But is it enough for the pound for pound Number 1 to be exposed? It is rare to see Mayweather in the ring more than once a year in recent times and despite being no stranger to long layoffs, the past 12 months have been unusually turbulent even by his wayward standards. A two month incarceration for domestic assault on the 1st June last year saw a more subdued version of the man exit his Las Vegas Jail cell to the brash, loudmouth egocentric that went in last June. Doctors who had visited him said that his body had deteriorated during his time in the cell and concerns were raised on how this might impact on his next performance; a long layoff at the age of 31 is very different to one at 36, making this potentially the hardest comeback fight in his career. For the man in question who has reached such untouchable heights, he now also has so very much to lose. For all his 8 world titles across 5 weight divisions as well as an unblemished record, the next 30 months are still the most crucial in transcending his claim from the greatest fighter of his generation, to the greatest of all time. If youve been living on Mars for the last 3 months, this Saturday night will see Mayweather (43-0-26KO) defend his WBC Welterweight title against 6 time, four division world champion Robert the Ghost Guerrero (35-1-18KO), an American of Mexican descent. A brawling win over two time world champion Andre Berto last year elevated Guerreros status to such a place that he was handpicked as the first of the 6 lucky contenders in Floyds shiny new $200million dollar contract with Showtime Sports. No doubt Guerrero will enter the MGM Grand as the underdog this Saturday night, but he seems to be relishing every moment. His last fight saw him turn the bookies odds on their heads with a 12 round unanimous decision including knockdowns in each of the first two rounds. Berto adopted Mayweather's unorthodox Philly Shell stance which Guerrero was easily able to breach time and time again. However this version of the patented Mayweather defence was far from the one we can expect to see on Saturday night. Berto was flat footed; the timing of his roll and pivot as Guerrero threw left straights and hooks was not what it needed to be; it was an amateurish and awkward imitation of a defensive strategy that Mayweather has been perfecting since the late 90s. If Guerrero believes this type of defence is easily penetrable because of Bertos foibles, he may get a dose of reality on Saturday night. The stance itself relies heavily on impeccable timing and the intelligent reading of an opponents movement before quite literally rolling with their punches; reaction speed is key and is the difference between the Philly Shell working effortlessly and falling flat on its face. Of course, speed declining with age is a parallel occurrence across all of sport and there are few who can avoid it. Bernard Hopkins is living proof that age doesnt necessarily correlate with a decline in performance; however a loss of speed is far less apparent at Light Heavyweight than it would be for Mayweather at Welterweight. At 36 years of age, he is no spring chicken in the 147 pound division and if this facet of his armory has waned, even marginally, it will show on Saturday night. Likewise, if age has caught up with his legs, a pressure fighter like Robert Guerrero is exactly the type of boxer to expose it. It would be nothing short of a sporting tragedy to see a boxer on the brink of all time greatness suddenly fall victim of the overnight ageing syndrome to which so many boxers have succumb. Against Cotto, for the first time in his career, we saw a version of Floyd Mayweather different to any other in the past. He fought much of the 12 rounds in the pocket against the rampant Puerto Rican who threw everything in the locker over the full distance. Post fight, Floyd said that he wanted to prove that he could fight toe to toe with a man of warrior-like status as Cotto, thereby adding another string to his bow in staking his claim as the greatest fighter of all time. Although Cotto was comprehensively outboxed, he won many of the middle rounds and Mayweather spent more time on the ropes than any other fight of his career. Although Floyd said he was simply giving the fans the excitement they wanted to see, Guerrero does not believe this was by choice: His legs are going and he knows it - whether this is his genuine belief or whether he is just stirring a publicity storm that this Saturday could be a Mayday emergency for Floyd, his claim is not without grounding. With a pressure fighter of his rough neck schooling, Guerreros game plan will be to test the legs of his older opponent so expect an extremely high tempo on Saturday night, from the first bell to the last. It is unlikely that Mayweather will engage in more than a couple of rounds toe to toe with Guerrero; he has acknowledged that his longevity hinges on not getting hit and he will not want sacrifice his chances of becoming 44-0 by engaging in a Cotto-esque war. Movement around the outside of the ring and not holding his feet for long periods of the fight will be key to Floyd's success; Guerrero is flat footed and will need to be anchored in order to throw power punches, keeping him on the move will be a smart strategy, but if Floyd really is losing his legs then he wont have much choice but to stand and trade for portions of the fight, most likely in the middle rounds and these are where Guerrero is most likely to have success. If that chink in Floyd's armour is more than just rumor about town, Guerrero is exactly the man to find out how many of the impeccable boxing facets are still in Mayweathers possession. The last key to the outcome on Saturday night is an element that has received little discussion in the boxing press. As emphatic as his performance was against Berto, there was an element of help on Guerreros side in the form of referee Lou Moret. He had far from an easy nights work, but was unable to maintain order and let a street fight esque contest to get somewhat out of control. Berto received the brunt of the warnings when it was Guerrero instigating much of the inside melee. Take nothing away from Guerrero, his victory saw him totally out hustle and out muscle the perceived bigger and stronger man, but anyone in plain sight could see that there was a huge deal of dirty fighting as well as illegal holding and hitting. Very little was punished and much of it went seemingly unnoticed by Moret to the obvious frustration of Berto. By contrast, the referee for this Saturdays fight is Robert Byrd, a man who is far from lenient between the ropes. Guerrero will be hard pushed to execute the rough house tactics against Floyd that worked so well in his last fight; it is likely he will try, but even more likely that Byrd will break the action immediately and even dock points from Guerrero for excessive leaning, holding and hitting. This will give Floyd the space he needs to work, sticking those long jabs to the midsection and left hooks to the body of his Southpaw opponent. I fully expect that we will see the best of The Ghost come Saturday night; it is his chance to become The man who beat the man and it would be foolish to think that hell turn up with anything other than all guns blazing against the best pound for pound fighter in the world. But contrary to what many people think, this fight is not about how good Robert Guerrero is, but whether Floyd Mayweather has lost any of his ring sharpness over a turbulent 12 months. If both fighters are at their best they are leagues apart in terms of talent, but there is a growing suspicion that father time is catching up with old Floyd. The invincible clock cannot keep ticking forever. Will his time be up this Saturday night? Maybe, but it would be foolish to bet against him.
Prediction: Mayweather wins 12 Round Unanimous Decision 117-112
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