Floyd Mayweather Jr. to fight Robert Guerrero on May 4
Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced Tuesday he will return to the boxing ring for the first time in nearly a year to fight Robert Guerrero on May 4 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The bout is part of a new deal between Mayweather and Showtime. He had a deal with HBO.
Mayweather (42-0, 26 knockouts) announced in a statement that he could fight as many as six times in a 30-month span. That’s a far-fetched proposition considering he has taken breaks of 21, 16 and 12 months in the last five years.
“He’ll be 36 on Sunday and enjoys his time off, but he has a renewed motivation for the sport,” Mayweather advisor Leonard Ellerbe said. “He wants to line guys up and knock them down one by one.
“He’s starting with Robert Guerrero May 4. Don’t you think that’s a good fight?”
Guerrero, 29, is 31-1-1 with 18 knockouts, and produced a compelling triumph Nov. 24 in Ontario, knocking down former welterweight world champion Andre Berto in the first and second rounds en route to a unanimous-decision victory.
Guerrero, from Gilroy, Calif., is a left-hander who took more than a year off from the sport to help his wife, Casey, successfully battle leukemia.
The bout will be for Mayweather’s World Boxing Council welterweight belt.
“He’s a very good fighter and has a great story and deserved the opportunity,” Ellerbe said of Guerrero. “Floyd has fought southpaws before. He’ll handle this fight as he’s handled them all, remaining undefeated and showing again why he’s the best fighter in the world.”
The card could also include a super-welterweight title unification bout between Mexico’s Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Austin Trout, with negotiations in progress, officials said.
Mayweather announced this month that his father, Floyd Sr., will take on a more prominent but still not completely defined training role for the fight. It is unclear how that affects Roger Mayweather, the fighter’s uncle and previous trainer.
Showtime Sports executive Stephen Espinoza, who helped broker the television deal, said the network is planning an “All Access” reality series, and “other programming” on parent network CBS to help promote the bout.
Twitter: @latimespugmire
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