By Ian S. Palmer
Robert Guerrero is set to battle it out with Selcuk Aydin on July 28 in San Jose, California for the WBC’s interim welterweight championship. It will be Guerrero’s first fight as a welterweight and it won’t be an easy one against the unbeaten Aydin.
The 28-year-old Aydin was born in Turkey, but now fights out of Hamburg, Germany and has been the WBC top-ranked contender for quite some time now. Guerrero of Gilroy, California is a former titleholder in two different divisions two and will be hoping to soon make it three. He’ll basically be the hometown favourite at the HP Pavilion and enters the bout with a record of 29-1-1 with 18 KOs. Aydin is a pretty hard hitter and will enter the ring with a perfect 23-0 record along with 17 KOs.
Guerrero is a good boxer, but probably falls just a little short of being an elite one. He’s been out of the ring for quite some time due to wife’s and his own health issues and this will be his first bout in 20 months. He could suffer from ring rust and if he does, he’ll have to make sure he stays away from Aydin’s power for the first few rounds.
Aydin is a little bit unpredictable in the ring and dome might even call him slightly wild. But if he happens to catch an opponent flush it could be lights out. He’s pretty short for a welterweight at 5-foot 7 and has a 65 inch reach. He turned pro back in 2006 and this will be just his second fight in the U.S. since he’s fought mainly in Europe there aren’t really any recognizable names on his resume. But either way, he’s beaten everybody who’s been placed in front of him. He’s beaten Jo Jo Dan twice by close decisions and beat Said Ouali by a split decision in his previous visit to the U.S. in April of 2009. His last bout was against Dan back in November.
Guerrero, a 29-year-old southpaw, is making a pretty big jump in weight from lightweight to welterweight, which is from 135 to 147 lbs. The heaviest he’s ever weighed in for a fight has been 138 lbs. when he won a unanimous decision over Joel Casamayor in 2010. When he turned pro back in 2001 Guerrero weighed 125.5 lbs. He won the IBF featherweight title in 2006 and the IBF super featherweight crown in 2009. His last fight was in April of 2011 when he won the interim WBO and WBA lightweight titles with a unanimous decision over Michael Katsidis. Guerrero’s only 5-foot-8 himself and has a 70-inch reach.
When fighting in the lower weight divisions Guerrero usually had a height and reach advantage, but that’s not really going to be the case against Aydin. It appears he’s gained weight to try and earn a big payday in a possible mega fight against either Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao. However, he better not take Aydin lightly and be looking past him to future bouts.
Guerrero has faced tougher opposition in the ring than Aydin has and Aydin had trouble with Dan, who’s also a southpaw. If the skilful Guerrero can handle the weight he should still be a sharp puncher, but he’s been losing some of his power the heavier he gets. This means he’s probably going to have to outbox Aydin in case a knockout doesn’t come.
This is going to be a tough fight, but if Guerrero can take Aydin’s power he should be able to box his way to a decision.
