By Ian S Palmer
Former world champion Robert Guerrero of Gilroy, California will be taking Aaron Martinez of Mexico in a 10-round welterweight bout at the StubHub Center in Carson, California on Saturday, June 6. Once again, North American boxing fans will be able to view the card on the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) Series. This fight will be broadcast by NBC across America and Canada on Saturday afternoon at 3pm ET.
The 32-year-old Guerrero was featured on PBC a couple of months ago and dropped a 12-round unanimous decision to WBA Welterweight Champion Keith Thurman. He’ll be entering the ring with a record of 32-3-1 along with 18 Kos while the 33-year-old Martinez is 19-3-1 and has just 4 Kos to his name. As his record shows, Martinez is a light-hitting fighter without much power and seems to be hand chosen for Guerrero as a way to get back into the win column after his loss to Thurman.
Guerrero could use the action since he’s fought just once a year since 2012, but he definitely needs a win here if he hopes to find himself in contention for another title shot down the road. Both Martinez and Guerrero have lost two of their past three outings as Guerrero was also beaten by unanimous decision by Floyd Mayweather in 2013. His other career loss came against Gamaliel Diaz by 12-round split decision in 2005. Martinez was stopped in the fifth round by Josesito Lopez back in March of last year and also dropped a 10-round decision to Jessie Vargas in. Vargas is now a world junior welterweight titleholder. Martinez’s other loss came at the hands of Abdon Lozano by a six-round majority decision in 2008.
Guerrero has taken on some tough customers during his career and has more big-fight experience compared to Martinez. In fact, Guerrero has held world title in four different weight classes up to now. His biggest wins have come against the likes of Andre Berto, Joel Casamayor, Selcuk Aydin and Michael Katsidis and has climbed up in weight on a consistent basis. Guerrero can take a punch as he has an excellent chin. However, his power has really traveled north with him when moving up in weight. He hasn’t stopped an opponent since 2010 and his last six wins have all come by decision.
In addition, Guerrero used to combine his fine boxing skills and mobility with inside fighting while throwing a variety of punches and combinations from different ranges. After moving up to the welterweight division he prefers to fight mainly on the inside and maul his way into a brawl while unloading short shots and uppercuts. He likes to throw a large volume of punches and his style usually results in a crowd-pleasing fight.
Since Martinez lacks the power to keep Guerrero off of him, look for the Californian to bull his way in and try to dominate the proceedings. Martinez will need to try and box his way to victory, but this will be hard if he can’t land anything with power to keep Guerrero on his back foot. He’ll need to utilize his speed and footwork to get in and land his shots and then get out of range while Guerrero attempts to counter.
Prediction
Guerrero should be too tough for Martinez to handle and will eventually be able to dictate the style of the fight. It’s highly doubtful that Martinez will be able to really inflict any damage on Guerrero and this means the American should take the fight by decision or via a late stoppage.
