- 6/30/2025
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SportsTranscript
00:00If you have received your information,
00:03you will have a good chance.
00:06Touchdown. Good chance.
00:10Quick look at the tail of the tape.
00:1224-year-old Christopher Guerrero with a 14-year-age advantage
00:16over 38-year-old Sandy Besaoud.
00:18Reach 27 inches for Sandy Besaoud,
00:20the 25 and a half for Christopher Guerrero.
00:23Guerrero obviously is an orthodox fighter.
00:25Besaoud is a southpaw.
00:27In fact, we're talking at the top of the show about workloads
00:30and schedules and busy fighters.
00:31And Christopher Guerrero, this is his fifth fight in 13 months.
00:35It would have been his fifth fight in one year plus one week,
00:38except his scheduled fight June 5th against Williams Herrera
00:41got canceled because Herrera got injured,
00:43and they bumped that fight to this date against a whole new opponent,
00:47completely different style match.
00:49Absolutely, and you also look at the rounds of experience
00:51in their career, way in the advantage of Besaoud,
00:53and that's one of the reasons why they want to keep him as active
00:55in different styles as though even if Chris Guerrero is already
00:58in the top 15 in one of his sanctioning bodies
01:00and getting close to the top 15 of WBC,
01:02he doesn't have the rounds of experience these other fighters
01:05when you look at the welterweight division and the rankings have.
01:07That's something his trainer Giuseppe Moffat was saying,
01:09we need to fight experienced guys,
01:10we still need to develop him even if he's in the rankings.
01:13Well, one of the ways Mesaoud accumulates rounds of experience
01:16is the fact that he has 20 wins but only one knockout,
01:19so his fights tend to go the distance when he wins.
01:21He has eight losses but only one by stoppage,
01:23so his fights also tend to go the distance when he loses.
01:28And as you see, orthodox southpaw matchup,
01:32they're taking some time to size each other up,
01:34figure out who has the geometric advantage,
01:36who has the advantage to turn the distance.
01:38If you watch Sandy Mesaoud, a lot of times you'll see him circle the other way,
01:42the way clockwise, which we're not really used to seeing southpaws do that.
01:46He'll circle towards your right hand.
01:48Hoping to draw that out and hoping that he can counter.
01:51There's Guerrero letting go of right hand,
01:55walking Mesaoud into a big left hook to the bottom.
01:58It's going to be a key punch for him tonight.
02:00A way to keep Mesaoud in front of him.
02:03Mesaoud, despite having a height advantage,
02:06a lot of his fights he tends to give it up and kind of lean forward on the inside.
02:10Yes.
02:11That's one thing against Chris Guerrero,
02:13you'll see Guerrero really trying to use his speed as a counter shot here
02:16against a fighter, Mesaoud, who's not known for his power,
02:19but definitely for his awkward style.
02:20Yes.
02:21Mesaoud, when you see him fight again,
02:23he will circle clockwise towards your right hand
02:26because he's confident he can make you miss with that right hand,
02:29but he doesn't always make you miss with that right hand.
02:31So there will be opportunities for Chris Guerrero
02:34if Mesaoud fights the way we've seen him fight.
02:37Mesaoud is much more effective, actually,
02:40but he stops trying to be tricky and just comes forward.
02:43His problem there is that he does not have huge punch in common.
02:47Here you see him taking that aggressive approach early.
02:51Gets Guerrero, certainly,
02:53but there's Guerrero with a quick count right hand to the body.
02:55Another technical key that unlocks
02:59an orthodox fighter's fight against the South Pole.
03:02Landed that right hand to the body,
03:04crawling up with the left hook right behind the elbow.
03:07There's 20 seconds left.
03:10One exposure to our escape.
03:12Here's Mesaoud, even counterclockwise,
03:16the more standard direction for a South Pole
03:19against an orthodox fighter.
03:20Guerrero just misses with a straight right hand.
03:23Feeling out round for Christopher Guerrero.
03:26Just know that if you don't do anything, he's not going to do anything.
03:38He's just going to survive like this for 10 rounds.
03:40That's the way he pops his feet.
03:41100%.
03:42I know so.
03:43Okay?
03:44I know so.
03:45That's what he's going to do for 12 rounds.
03:4610 rounds.
03:47Okay?
03:48You've got to commit.
03:49You've got to step in once in a while.
03:51Throw little punches.
03:52Set up big punches.
03:53Yeah.
03:54Don't reach.
03:55Yeah, he's going to be starting at the time.
03:56Don't reach.
03:57Don't reach.
03:58Start to the body.
03:59Cut the ring.
04:00Yo, he's going to be moving like that all night.
04:01You've got to cut the ring properly.
04:02Set up your punches.
04:03Okay?
04:04But you've got to commit.
04:06You're too good for this guy.
04:07Too fast for this guy.
04:08Okay?
04:09Let's talk this guy with a funny shot.
04:10But you've got to start now.
04:11Now, Matt, I don't know what the conversations are like on the French side of the broadcaster
04:32and Christopher Guerrero's fights.
04:33Corey and I talk about this all the time.
04:35If you're new to this fight series, it's your first time watching Christopher Guerrero,
04:39you will notice there are, one, a lot of voices in the corner.
04:42There's Giuseppe Maffa.
04:43There's his dad, Mike Maffa, who is now the assistant coach.
04:46There's Christopher Guerrero's dad, Omar.
04:48And Christopher Guerrero and Giuseppe Maffa, it's not just a one-way election.
04:53They have full-on conversations in the corner between rounds.
04:57I don't know if you guys talk about that on the French side, but Corey and I talk about that all the time.
05:00And it's one of the aspects that Giuseppe Maffa and Christopher Guerrero are kind of close in age as well.
05:05Yes.
05:06They look at each other a little bit more as even peers, exactly, and a lot of engagement.
05:10And Giuseppe has been very hard on Christopher Guerrero in the past as well.
05:14And Chris is one of those guys that you need to kind of speak in a harsh tone at times.
05:18He has momentary lapses, concentration.
05:22He needs to be reset. He's still a young fighter.
05:25He's a hero as well. Technically, maybe a little bit too much feints.
05:29Yeah.
05:30And enough punches thrown for Christopher Guerrero in the first round.
05:32This is Masoud's type of fight.
05:35Even though I don't think Masoud won that first round, here's Guerrero banged both hands to the body.
05:41The first disagreement of the night, it was almost like a 10-10 round to be in the first.
05:45We don't like even rounds.
05:46This is professional boxing. Christopher Guerrero landed the more authoritative blows.
05:55He carried the round.
05:58Masoud, I'm not going to say he's in survival mode, but he fights to survive, fights to go around.
06:04Whether he's winning one or not.
06:08There's Guerrero starting with the jab, finishing with the overhand right.
06:14You saw Masoud sort of backing.
06:17Again, backpedaling out the back door.
06:19But if he's in retreat, then he's not getting his offense off.
06:24Christopher Guerrero here, look at the time.
06:27Close the gap a little bit with a big shot.
06:31I see Guerrero there starting with the left hook and finishing with the right.
06:35And again, what we know about Masoud is that even when he's in elusive mode, you can still,
06:40like a good counter punch, you can still touch him with the right hand.
06:46Now you see Guerrero sort of moving backwards, moving towards Masoud's power.
06:58And there's Masoud finally letting his hands go a little bit.
07:01Because again, he's not going to move and run and win this fight.
07:05He is going to have to play on his feet and throw some punches and find a way to keep Christopher Guerrero off.
07:10But at least the movement is preventing him from getting time.
07:13Yes, yes.
07:14And staying in the pocket.
07:16It's disrupting Christopher Guerrero's offense.
07:18Yeah, absolutely.
07:19Not letting him get into a wreck.
07:20But at times, you see, there's not much shepherding the two.
07:22Like you mentioned, Guerrero definitely the harder shots.
07:24But also the cleaner shots, man.
07:26Yeah, yeah.
07:27And left hook.
07:28That sequence right there is enough to carry it around.
07:30Yeah.
07:31And there's the shot of Christopher Guerrero's bomb.
07:34She is, if you like looking at people, look nervous.
07:37She's very entertaining to watch.
07:39Me, I find it nerve-wracking watching her make me nervous.
07:42Sort of diminishes my enjoyment.
07:44But she is fully engaged every fight.
07:47Or see, you saw some of Chris's younger brothers as well.
07:52Big family.
07:53And again, one more reminder.
07:54Two weeks from tomorrow night.
07:56Louie Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York.
07:59Shakur Stevenson and William Zepeda in a lightweight grudge match.
08:02Edgar Berlang at the top of the card against Hamza Shiraz.
08:04And of course, on the undercard, Imam Hatayev, who fights with the Tiger management,
08:08trains here in Montreal, faces his toughest as a professional against the comebacking David Morrell of Cuba.
08:15Should be a fun night of boxing.
08:17I'm looking forward to that.
08:20It's hard to think Kitayev Morrell will be anything other than a slugfest.
08:25It can be something besides a slugfest.
08:29It's hard to think of it being anything other than entertaining.
08:32Right.
08:33Morrell's not a pure brawler.
08:35He's still, he's...
08:36But I think Kitayev is going to kind of maybe force that to happen at some point.
08:39Yes, he's going to force Morrell to open up.
08:42But Morrell is more a boxer puncher in the Osles Iglesias mold.
08:46Yeah.
08:47But it is an intriguing style match.
08:48And the fight against Benavidez, even Morrell in a loss, was still an amazing performance.
08:52Exactly.
08:53Very hard for Kitayev to pull that upset.
08:57But you know it will be an exciting card in a different environment that we're used to, right?
09:02You know, I always wonder why there aren't more fight cards in tennis stadiums because of the way tennis stadiums are laid out.
09:07It seems like a natural.
09:08I don't know if you've ever been to one of the Montreal tennis stadium fights.
09:11There's been, of course, in the past.
09:13Jean-Pascal headlining.
09:14David Lemieux has headlined there.
09:16Joachim Alcine had lost the title against Daniel Santos.
09:18Yes.
09:19The Montreal tennis stadiums are definitely a good summer spot to have.
09:23Well, let's talk to Camille Estefan about next summer.
09:26You never know.
09:27Look it up.
09:28As we were talking, you saw Christopher Guerrero finally line up Mesau for that straight right hand.
09:33There it is again.
09:34He seems to have, at least for this sequence of time, found the distance, found the timing.
09:39And now it's on Mesau to make an adjustment.
09:41Mesau is a completely different fighter than Christopher Guerrero just faced in Quintana.
09:45Yes.
09:46Went from more physical style puncher to tall southpaw.
09:50He likes to box.
09:51And a different style fighter from the one he was preparing to face in William Serrero.
09:55Correct.
09:56So he had to make a quick pivot late in training camp.
09:59Went to Philadelphia for sparring with Wilkins Messier.
10:03So listen, I had a good talk with Christopher Guerrero about his sparring sessions with Andy
10:08Cruz.
10:09And for, I mean, people that are watching this deep in ESPN plus Punching Grace Undergar,
10:13they know exactly who Andy Cruz is.
10:15The new folks.
10:16He is the Cuban defector who is riding a rocket to the top of the lightweight division.
10:20An incredibly talented, skilled, charismatic fighter.
10:23And they sparred 18 rounds.
10:25One of the things Christopher Guerrero told me that he learned from sparring with Andy
10:29Cruz is that Andy Cruz, one, throws that straight right hand to the body.
10:32So when you see Christopher Guerrero, come back to that punch because Andy Cruz reminded
10:36him to throw it.
10:37But also in moments like this, when the guy that you're fighting thinks he's going to
10:41relax, thinks he's going to regroup.
10:42When he thinks he's going to take two or three seconds for himself to get himself
10:45together.
10:46Just pop him with the jab.
10:47Touch him with the jab.
10:48Don't give that guy a chance to get settled.
10:50Don't give him a chance to think.
10:52He said that's what Andy Cruz is doing to him in the sparring sessions.
10:55And this is what he plans to do to whoever the next unlucky opponent is.
10:58And it happens to be Sandy Mesaud.
11:00And he could use that jab a little bit more.
11:03Yes.
11:04Sometimes it's frustrating to throw the jab against a softball.
11:06We saw that early on in Wyatt Sanford's fight.
11:08Yes.
11:09But right now it's...
11:10Yeah, and jabs against a softball, like the Knights when we have console box numbers,
11:14they land at a low percentage.
11:15But that's why.
11:16That straight right hand, you can land it at a higher percentage.
11:19You can get the angle for it.
11:20And Christopher Guerrero just did.
11:22You can see Mesaud would be a very problematic fighter to face if he had a little bit more power.
11:27Yes.
11:28You see Guerrero finishing with the left hook to the head,
11:31and then finishing with the left hook to the bottom.
11:33Complained by Mesaud of a headbutt.
11:35Guerrero did enough, and again, finishing the round strongly.
11:40Here we see getting his hands taped, John El Tigre Orovio, the pride of Cali Colombia,
11:56who's rapidly learning French, rapidly climbing the junior lightweight, junior welterweight rankings,
12:03getting ready for his biggest test against Zolt Osadan, a Slovak fighter who's 27-3,
12:09has crossed the ocean because he sees a big opportunity.
12:12He understands that John Orovio is a rising star in the game,
12:15and if he picks up an upset win over John Orovio,
12:17all kinds of things become possible for Zolt Osadan.
12:20That's a few fights later on this card.
12:22He's a big part.
12:25You've got a big part.
12:27.
12:31.
12:41Round four underway here at the Centerville Auton in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
12:50Christopher Guerrero.
12:51Oh, Matt, you are scoring the card again.
12:53Usually I'm used to getting these cards delivered to me.
12:56Matt Castellan has him up two rounds.
12:58That first round, swing round, highly controversial.
13:01The latter of course disagreement, but you see, like, even some of these rounds, the second,
13:05Guerrero, like you mentioned, the cleaner and harder shots, but you see,
13:07here, he does good work at times and is able to land, which is not as powerful as Christopher Guerrero.
13:15Well, this right here, even though he's not landing a ton, is Mesaoud's most effective sequence of the night.
13:21This is the first time he's actually succeeded at keeping Christopher Guerrero at the end of his jab.
13:25You see Christopher Guerrero stalk, duck, get underneath, throw that right hand to the body.
13:31And his training partner, Wilkins Messier, who fights, of course, a few categories above, at super middleweight.
13:35He was telling me, though, the last time when Christopher Guerrero was fighting Quintana,
13:38he does take too many points sometimes and let his hands roll a little bit more.
13:42And you can see, even here tonight, sometimes Guerrero's looking for the perfect shot.
13:46But, yes, but you did see Guerrero almost line up Mesaoud for that counter right hand.
13:52But to your point, situations like this, where the Christopher Guerrero who ran down to me,
13:56what he learned from Andy Cruz, would be popping the jab.
13:59And every time Mesaoud thinks he's going to get comfortable, you just unsettle him with that jab.
14:04Make him resettle.
14:05Make him give him something to think about.
14:09But, again, this is the thing about fighting Mesaoud.
14:11He has eight losses, but he's a very awkward fighter.
14:14Oh, good.
14:14Big right hand for Guerrero.
14:17And now Mesaoud is in retreat.
14:19Another right hand.
14:21Guerrero unloads with two hands to the bodies.
14:24A little bit of a shoe shine combination.
14:25Yes.
14:25Another straight right hand off the forehead.
14:28Here's Mesaoud fighting off the ropes.
14:30Credit to him, too, because he knows he doesn't have big power, but he fights off the ropes anyway.
14:35And only one career defeat by knockout out of eight defeats, right, for Mesaoud.
14:39So he's also known to be able to lose that.
14:42This is how you accumulate rounds.
14:44All your wins are by decision.
14:45All your losses are also by decision.
14:47Big right hand by Guerrero.
14:50And, again, four moments in this fight for 30-second stretches.
14:53He finds the distance and the angle.
14:54Uppercut left hook.
14:55Roundhouse right to the body finishes with a straight right, sort of from that walking southpaw stance.
15:03Really smart stretch there from Christopher Guerrero.
15:12Here's Guerrero using some head movement, trying to get inside.
15:15Quick switch to southpaw, throw the jab.
15:17But, again, you can see left and right.
15:23Mesaoud says he was head-butted.
15:24I didn't see it.
15:25Maybe the replay will show it.
15:27Guerrero trying to land one last 10-lane blow before the end of the round.
15:31Oh, yeah.
15:41All right.
15:42Oh, yeah.
15:43Oh, yeah.
15:44So early on, or this was a bit later, actually, that counter right hand by Christopher Guerrero
16:05encountered the head movement to see his girlfriend, Vanessa, and the fans watching the show.
16:14And again, it's an unorthodox corner, it's an entertaining corner, because it's unlike any corner in boxing, because from round to round, you don't know what you're going to get.
16:36You might get a full conversation, you might get an argument, you might get Christopher Guerrero standing between rounds.
16:41One of the other things Christopher Guerrero and Giuseppe Maffa told me leading up to this fight is about the level of ambition, and Christopher Guerrero wants a challenge, he wants to fight veterans like this.
16:55They were ready to fight Ismael Barroso, who almost beat Roley Romero a couple years back.
16:59Like, this is sort of the level of fighter they're targeting.
17:02But Christopher Guerrero is also, Christopher and Giuseppe are also very realistic about where Christopher is compared to where he wants to be.
17:09So Christopher Guerrero also has been down in Philly, and he has sparred a couple times.
17:13Big right hand got Esmael's attention, but he has sparred a few times with Boots Ennis, you know, and has said, you know, in a real fight, he wants no parts of Boots Ennis.
17:22But Boots Ennis is moving up to 154, which makes for a whole lot more opportunity in the welterweight division.
17:28But in a year or two from now, Christopher Guerrero could be that guy that the other fighters are looking at considering as a title fight challenger.
17:37And I would say welterweight division right now is kind of one of those divisions that's in need of some new blood, right?
17:42There's much bigger names at 140.
17:44Yes.
17:45Even probably at junior middleweight right now.
17:47Especially, again, with Boots Ennis deciding to move up.
17:50The biggest remaining name has now moved up.
17:52Here's Guerrero getting to work with two right hands.
17:55And Mesoud moving counterclockwise, trying to get an angle to get his straight left hand off.
18:08This type of fight, Mesoud probably thinks he's doing not bad at all.
18:11Yes.
18:12Because Guerrero once in a while lands some power shots.
18:15That's what kind of attracts the attention and probably doesn't have to win in the rounds, but it is not a domination.
18:22But we also don't have the luxury of CompuBox numbers.
18:26All good hook legs.
18:28Yes.
18:29Guerrero lands that hook to set up that sequence, lands a couple straight right hands.
18:31But like that right there, there have been many more of these sequences for Guerrero than there have been for Mesoud.
18:36So even if it's not a whitewash or a boxing lesson, Guerrero still has been for the most part a step ahead of Mesoud.
18:44Here's Mesoud throwing two long straight left hand, landing the second one.
18:51And Mesoud finally relatively letting his hands go because this is his best chance.
18:56He's not going to win this fight picking and poking.
18:59Bounces that right jab off of Guerrero's shoulder.
19:01It has to be frustrating for him because he lands a few good accurate shots, but he doesn't seem to do much damage at all.
19:07Except if you're Mesoud, you're used to that because you only have one knockout and 20 wins.
19:13Well, that's why you don't have as many wins against better opposition.
19:16Yes, absolutely.
19:21You saw Mesoud right there throw a one-two and sort of whip last Christopher Guerrero's head.
19:26Land another punch there.
19:28To the point that Christopher Guerrero right there feels he has to unload some one-twos to regain control of this round.
19:35Leave a judge with the last impression of that uppercut to the body and the belt.
19:38Might disagree with me on this one again, but I think we have a bit of a closer fight.
19:41Another Mesoud round.
19:42I do.
19:47Averaging three punches are fucking wrong, bro.
19:50It's not fucking working.
19:52Step in.
19:53Every time you step in, you touch, bro.
19:56How many times do I have to say it?
19:58Every fucking round it's the same thing.
20:00Wake up, bro.
20:01We're in the sixth round, bro.
20:03Just let your hands go.
20:05There's no magic fucking combination that's gonna work.
20:07Let your fucking hands go.
20:09Just step in, bro.
20:10One-two, one-two.
20:11Body up.
20:12There's no recipe, bro.
20:14Every time you step in, you touch.
20:16Keep stepping in.
20:18You're not gonna gas out, bro.
20:19I promise you.
20:20He's gonna gas out before you.
20:21Before you walk in.
20:22There's a right hand that started the round really good for Christopher Guerrero.
20:27Now, Hook, and those are a few power shots that probably, Morgan, you would have scored the round for Christopher Guerrero.
20:32But I thought overall activity for Mesoud was better, even though we didn't see much of it in this replay.
20:39A couple things going on.
20:40One, we talked about how entertaining it is in Christopher Guerrero's corner.
20:43Giuseppe Mocca has seen enough, and now we see a much more aggressive Christopher Guerrero.
20:49It was about the clearer instructions that you could get, right?
20:52Yes.
20:53It doesn't have to be technical.
20:54It's about, like, waking up and motivating your fighter to do more.
20:57And again, when you talk to Christopher Guerrero about how he sees these fights ending,
21:01I remember talking to him before he was scheduled to fight Williams Herrera,
21:05and he thought he envisioned this fight ending on a clean counterpunch, which is fine.
21:10You know, there's a lot to be said for the power of visualization.
21:13But it's one thing to get married to a vision of the fight that you think is gonna unfold.
21:17Something else to have a fight in front of you that you gotta manage.
21:20And this is what Giuseppe Mocca is trying to get Christopher Guerrero to do,
21:23is Christopher Guerrero bang two left hooks to the body.
21:26And the reality is, the chances of, um, any fighter just starching, uh, Sandy Mesaou with one punch are very slim.
21:34He has a good chin, he's only been soft once and ain't lost.
21:37And so if you're gonna beat him, it's with that activity, like Giuseppe Mocca was asking for.
21:41Right.
21:42Like Christopher Guerrero is showing more in this round.
21:44The last time I heard Giuseppe Mocca speak this way to Christopher Guerrero was also at the Viotron Center
21:49on the Bertabev undercard a few years ago.
21:51Yes.
21:52That was probably Christopher Guerrero's least inspiring performance.
21:55He had improved a lot after that fight, starting with his nutrition,
21:58and said he had to learn with that eight-round decision win against Herrera,
22:01but it was a tougher fight than anticipated.
22:04Tonight, maybe he needs a little bit of that second win also here in the second half of the fight.
22:08And that was the fight that led to the famous Tim Bradley rant that led to this famous turning point.
22:13Correct.
22:14In Christopher Guerrero's career and in terms of, uh, the seriousness with which he approaches this professional.
22:19He lands a huge right hand there, goes to work downstairs.
22:23That's what he's doing, letting his hands move in.
22:26Yes, and again, the big difference, it's a big difference between what he did for the first five rounds
22:30and what Giuseppe Mocca asked him to do this round.
22:33It's been much busier.
22:36Double it.
22:38Very slick defensive sequence there from Christopher Guerrero.
22:45Until he gets popped with that straight left and comes back with a right-hand uppercut.
22:50Right-hand counter over the top.
22:52And another one.
22:53This is where you can look at the girl trying to throw with bad intentions, but if you put his punches together, he has more success earlier in the round.
23:03Well, this is, uh, and that's exactly what Giuseppe Mocca was asking for between rounds.
23:07Just let your hands go, there's no one magic punch.
23:10But again, that's what fights like this against opponents like this are supposed to teach you.
23:20But you can still win, you can still hurt a guy, uh, you can still land effectively even if you're not scoring a knockout, even if you're not dropping him with one punch.
23:27Because Sandy Mesaoud is not a guy that goes down with one punch, he's got a chin.
23:31Took two punches there and came back with a quick right hook on the inside.
23:35He's tough, he's pretty.
23:37Good exchange at the end.
23:57Keep touching.
23:58No punches, no punches.
23:59Yo, every time you throw that looping right, you touch it.
24:00Double up on it.
24:01Start going, change an angle for something else.
24:02It's gonna go together, Chris.
24:03Four or five punches together.
24:04You're doing one at a time.
24:05And then you're moving your head and you're not coming back.
24:06If you make a miss, one, two, you gotta come back.
24:07I'm moving back, man.
24:08Okay?
24:09Okay?
24:10You're not moving back.
24:11Okay?
24:12Okay?
24:13Okay?
24:14Okay?
24:15Okay?
24:16Okay?
24:17Okay?
24:18Okay?
24:19Okay?
24:20Okay?
24:21Okay?
24:22Okay?
24:23Okay?
24:24Okay?
24:25Okay?
24:26Okay?
24:27Okay?
24:28Okay?
24:29Okay?
24:30Well, please.
24:43As we begin round seven, a more aggressive Christopher Guerrero, a slightly less but still very animated
24:49Giuseppe Moffa in the corner, telling Christopher Guerrero to get busier, cut some angles, let his
24:53hands go.
24:54Also mentioned that right hand of his and he could even double up at times against the
24:58southpaw.
24:59He's had success.
25:00And you see now Mesoud kind of applying pressure.
25:02Yes.
25:03Maybe knowing that he has to kind of throw a little bit more himself if he wants to make
25:07this a closer fight on the scorecards.
25:09Yeah.
25:10And Sandy Mesoud, if you saw his fight from a few years ago against Yasik Tanov in Bulgaria,
25:16it was very similar.
25:18He spent the first few rounds moving big left hand, knocks the sweat off of Christopher Guerrero's
25:22head.
25:23The best punch.
25:24That might be the best punch from either guy all night, Matt.
25:28But again, as I was saying, that fight changed as they trade right or power hands.
25:33That fight changed when Sandy Mesoud started coming forward.
25:36He didn't win the fight, but he won the second half of that fight.
25:38Yeah.
25:39And that's usually his experience level wanting to do, right?
25:41Yes.
25:42Stay close in the first round.
25:43First half of the fight, I should say.
25:44And now try to do a little bit more in the second half.
25:46Yes.
25:47This is a very bad opening seventh round for Christopher Guerrero.
25:49Yeah.
25:50There's another long lead left for Mesoud.
25:51It's also the quietest the crowd has been tonight thus far.
25:53Yes.
25:54The quietest the crowd has been tonight, the quietest we've heard a crowd for a Chris Guerrero
25:58fight in a long time.
26:00Guerrero coming back with a one-two.
26:03Oh.
26:04Nice one.
26:05Big left hook over the top.
26:06And again, much more success when he throws his punches in twos and threes.
26:09There's a right hand to the body as Mesoud covering up.
26:11Big left hook to the body.
26:14Those left hands might have woken Christopher Guerrero out there.
26:17Now here's Mesoud in retreat.
26:19Come on, Chris!
26:21As weird as it may seem sometimes that's what it takes for a fighter to kind of,
26:24Oh, who's coasting.
26:25Yes.
26:26As an opponent doesn't have much power, not much going on.
26:28It's almost like a glorified sparring session.
26:30All of a sudden, take a few good shots and they're back on the offensive.
26:34Yeah, if it wasn't Giuseppe Moffa's halftime preaching,
26:39if it was going to wake up Christopher Guerrero,
26:41maybe it was a couple of long left hands from Sandy Mesoud.
26:47Two jabs in the right hand and left hand to the body from Mesoud.
26:50Three! Come back!
26:54Guerrero flirting with a warning for punching behind the head there.
26:57That was close.
26:58Yeah, yeah.
26:59Christopher Guerrero's keeping his hands very low.
27:02Very low.
27:03And I think he knows because he's tested enough of Mesoud's shots
27:06and will not be bothered by the power, but I think he does better
27:09with his hands up and coming forward against fighters he respects for power
27:12like Quintana he did last time.
27:13Yes.
27:14Also, when we see clean left hands land like that,
27:17it doesn't matter about the power because that left hand scores.
27:21And so, you know, you're scoring the fight better than I am,
27:23but on the strength of three clean, clear, crisp, long left hands,
27:29Mesoud might have carried that round.
27:34Guerrero comes back a little bit, but I think he did.
27:36Mesoud winning this round again.
27:38Yes.
27:44We got a very close fight on my cards leading up into the last three rounds.
27:47And again, you got a very close fight for three rounds.
27:51Yeah.
27:53Yeah.
27:54Yeah.
27:55Yeah.
27:56Yeah.
27:58Yeah.
28:09Yeah.
28:13Yeah.
28:14Yeah.
28:15Yeah.
28:16You can see the wide shots as Guerrero misses.
28:20Mesaud comes back with accurate counter shots.
28:23Boom.
28:24That was like you mentioned, with that straight left hand,
28:26especially the counter shots.
28:27And when Chris tries, the body work was good.
28:30Doesn't let himself follow up.
28:31He looked too confident with the hands low,
28:33gets tagged from that distance.
28:35It's not that Mesaud is a powerful puncher,
28:37but at a certain point, precision punching,
28:39that lands count.
28:40Yes.
28:41And also, reading their body language,
28:43when you see Guerrero, after a sequence like that,
28:46bashing his hands together, saying, come on.
28:48It's a sign he would rather have a brawl,
28:50but it's also a sign that he's a little bit frustrated,
28:53that he can't put his hands on Mesaud
28:56as consistently as he would like to
28:58when you see him start this round
28:59at the end of Mesaud's reach.
29:01It's a great point.
29:02The reach is where I'm not sure why Christopher Guerrero...
29:05Oh, there you go.
29:06Big overhand left.
29:07Sort of set a trap there for Mesaud.
29:09Mesaud walked straight into it.
29:10I think Guerrero would have more success
29:12closing the gap and fighting really on the inside.
29:15And again, that strategy that you just outlined
29:19makes a lot of sense
29:22because Mesaud's not a guy
29:23that you're gonna knock out with one punch or two,
29:25or even two or three.
29:27The throw, clearly a little below-the-bell shot.
29:31But for reality, you can nerve stepping in,
29:35and they wanted to recommend.
29:38Now, Mesaud has eight losses.
29:40Clearly there are ways to beat him,
29:41but the one-punch home run is not it.
29:45As we see, a Canadian record holder in the 100-meter dash,
29:50Bruny-Surin in English, Bruny-Surin in French,
29:53passed by the broadcast table.
29:55A little-known fact, well, a well-known fact,
29:58I come from a track and field household.
30:00My wife is a ten-time Canadian champion in the hurdles.
30:02So when a track star comes into the building,
30:05if no one else recognizes it, I recognize it.
30:07That's a world champion, a gold medalist in our midst.
30:12The only track star you want to see in a boxing night, though.
30:14Yes.
30:15Inside the ring.
30:17Again, in this eighth round,
30:19very little separates to both men.
30:21Accurate shots by Mesaud here.
30:22Yes, absolutely.
30:23And here's Guerrero again, presented with, in fairness to him,
30:28a puzzle he didn't think he was going to have to solve two weeks ago.
30:31And here he is, finally doing what his coach asked to do,
30:35just coming forward, getting aggressive, letting his hands go.
30:38Because against the guy with the chin and the defensive skills
30:43of Sandy Mesaud,
30:45that home run is probably not coming.
30:47Like, the knockout he had against Kenny Larson,
30:49the knockout he had against...
30:51Completely different types of fighters.
30:52It's not going to happen against Mesaud.
30:54So even if you beat him, it's going to be with volume.
30:57That's what he has to do,
30:58open up a little bit more here in the eighth round,
31:00because I really think this last 40 seconds,
31:02the run is up for drop.
31:03Yes.
31:04There's a big left hook to the body.
31:06Got Mesaud walking backwards,
31:08followed it up with a straight right hand.
31:10No way, no way, Chris!
31:11And Mesaud back his jab, back to circling out.
31:14But doing that because Christopher Guerrero
31:17got his attention with some of those shots.
31:21Mesaud with the backhand jab, long jab, just staying busy.
31:25Sort of doing what Chris Guerrero said
31:27that Andy Cruz had done to him,
31:28is just popping the jab whenever you think
31:30you're going to get comfortable.
31:32And you've got to reset.
31:33There's Christopher Guerrero.
31:34That's a scoring dilemma.
31:35Last 30 seconds, Mesaud lands a little bit more cleanly,
31:37but not much power.
31:38Guerrero sometimes comes back with one or two power shots,
31:41but is it enough?
31:42What are the judges going to prefer?
31:44Guerrero with a big right hand underneath to the body.
31:46Roll counter, right hand.
31:50But to your point, Matt, yeah, if you're Team Guerrero,
31:57you want to see those sequences more frequently
32:01or see them last longer, strung together more?
32:06I think it's a dangerous game to pick
32:08that because Mesaud's power isn't there,
32:09that the judges are not going to score these shots.
32:11Yes.
32:12Yes.
32:13Yes.
32:14Yes.
32:15Yes.
32:16There's the champ now, 13-1.
32:17Leila Baudouin.
32:18posing for pictures and signing autographs like a true people's champion.
32:31That's a great sight to see, Morgan, is the youth and the future generation of boxing fans.
32:36We're here at the casino, of course, with age restrictions here tonight.
32:40A lot of young faces in the crowd, and that's great to see.
32:42Yeah, we love the casino, but nobody there is under 19 years of age.
32:46So, to your point, you don't know how the young people feel about what's happening,
32:50because you can't see them.
32:52You come to the hockey arena, the house that Mesaud and Billy B is built,
32:56you see everybody.
33:00As we begin round nine, contest scheduled for 10.
33:04Wendy Mesaud, keeping it close, keeping it competitive.
33:09Not sure what the social media fallout is going to be about this scorecard here,
33:14but I have it even after eight rounds.
33:16It doesn't matter, I stay away from social media, man.
33:20I post, I don't reply, I don't read what people write to me.
33:23But we know that...
33:24Big one-two from Mesaud, and again...
33:25Point being, this fight is, I think, up for grabs.
33:27Well, the point you made at the end of the last round holds true.
33:31It's one thing to look at a guy's record and say he only has one knockout,
33:34so he doesn't hit hard.
33:35So that might open up some options for you offensively,
33:38because you don't think he can hurt you.
33:39But if he is hitting you, he is scoring.
33:41So that's two very different things.
33:43You can't just let the guy score and expect that the judges are going to cut you some slack,
33:47because the other guy doesn't have knockouts.
33:49And the judges can't judge his knockout record,
33:51all they can judge is what he's doing.
33:53And to open this round, he has found the distance, he has found the angle
33:56to land these left hands on Christopher Guerrero.
33:58It's clean, effective punching.
33:59That's the number one scoring criteria.
34:01Not just about power shots.
34:03Yes.
34:04Because if it was only about power, it set up the big carnival machine
34:08and lets you punch it like Ivan Drago
34:10and see if you can reach 1,850 pounds per square inch.
34:13And Pauli Malignaggi would not have been a world champion.
34:15Yes.
34:18Now here's Guerrero.
34:19This is the better range for him on the inside.
34:22But something's off with Christopher Guerrero
34:24compared to his performance.
34:25Yes.
34:26Last April against Quintana, where he had fight in the night honors.
34:29He's got to dig deep and throw more here
34:31because he's waiting way too much.
34:38And again, Guerrero just seems to be sort of caught
34:40between the fight he thought he was going to get
34:42and the fight that he's getting.
34:44He went about those early rounds
34:46he really thought he was going to rattle Mesaud with one punch.
34:50And again, Mesaud has a chin.
34:52And so one punch is rarely going to do it
34:54for anyone that's fighting Sandy Mesaud.
34:56So you've got to go to plan B and plan C
34:58if plan A was just to blast him out of here.
35:00You see, have Mesaud back against the ropes
35:03and he's not throwing as many combinations.
35:06He's just letting him walk out of it.
35:09Mesaud does a good job of just long-range shots
35:12and pivot out of it.
35:13Yeah, there's Guerrero showing some slick defense.
35:16Catching a lot of these punches, rolling underneath them.
35:19But the part where he needs to make Mesaud pay
35:22and the part where he does more importantly
35:24what his coach asks him in terms of letting his hands go.
35:27Those sequences are really sporadic.
35:31Yeah, sporadic's really the key word here.
35:33And again, had a few good right hands.
35:35Let's Mesaud walk out of the ropes.
35:37And here's Mesaud moving as much as full counter right hand
35:46for Christopher Guerrero.
35:47Now that punch got Mesaud's attention.
35:49Got Mesaud retreating.
35:51You saw the brief eye contact there.
35:53And Guerrero nodded at him.
35:55Right in the left of the body
35:56and a big home run swing of a right hand in another one.
35:59They don't connect, but that's a bounce back,
36:02sequence of a bounce back round for Guerrero.
36:05I mean, that big right hand, yes, late.
36:07But overall, I thought Mesaud, again, landing more shots.
36:10Yes.
36:11Gonna have interesting scorecards here.
36:12Very difficult round to score.
36:16This is the tenth and final round in this championship round.
36:24You see Mesaud, body shot, partially blocked,
36:26but the head shot comes back and boom, one, two.
36:28Yes.
36:29And Christopher Guerrero, instead of trying to answer back,
36:31that was the best shot of his he did in the late stages
36:34of that round.
36:35But too many times he's trying to just get into kind of head games
36:38here taunting his opponent instead of throwing.
36:40Yes.
36:41And it's also a sign that he is a little bit frustrated.
36:44Absolutely.
36:47Because he doesn't need the gesture that the punch didn't hurt him
36:49unless the punch hit him clean.
36:51Oh.
36:53And the judges, they can't score, they can't assign a score,
36:55they can't give you credit for saying that the punch didn't hurt you.
36:57They've got to give credit for the punch landing.
36:59You can see Christopher Guerrero's father with inspiring words
37:03there in the corner.
37:04You can hear what he says, but clearly they know this is a close fight.
37:06Yeah.
37:07And here's Mesaud's back when he needs to be back on his jab.
37:12Because he does well when he fights a different distance.
37:14Right hand uppercut clips Christopher Guerrero's shin.
37:17Now this time Mesaud throws that one to him and he's out of there
37:25in time for the counter.
37:26Sorry, out of there in time to avoid the counter.
37:29Balimpineva wants the tape to be fixed on the left glove of Mesaud.
37:40Tends to happen over time with water dripping on the glove.
37:42Yes.
37:43Sweat.
37:47Yeah, you see that tape hanging loose, that's a bit of a safety hazard.
38:01Right.
38:05Here's Guerrero.
38:06I'm not sure the fix is better.
38:09We'll have to see if Balimpineva intervenes.
38:13Yeah, here's Guerrero on the front foot.
38:17And he had Mesaud where he wanted him in the sense of Mesaud's ropes.
38:22Back he's touching the ropes.
38:25Guerrero trying to time that left hand.
38:29Big right hand, Mesaud thinks it was dirty because it was right on the timeout call.
38:32Yeah, but at the same time, the referee was too far away on that one.
38:35Yes.
38:37Well, getting impatient.
38:38But the evidence that Mesaud I don't think is wanting to have pauses in this round.
38:43No.
38:44It's not like Mesaud planned to have a ragging tape job.
38:48Again, it's what you said.
38:49It's what happened when the fight progresses and the moisture accumulates.
38:52This time the inspector put on the tape.
38:54Yes.
38:55What an issue.
38:56Telling the reading staff, I'll take care of it.
39:03Yeah, here's Mesaud back at his distance.
39:06Giving a little bit of ground.
39:11Knowing that if he keeps that jab out there, he's sort of safe from Christopher Guerrero.
39:16Guerrero dives in with that overhand right.
39:18Quick exchange, but no telling blows land for either man.
39:22Make no mistake.
39:23Christopher Guerrero has to let his hands go in this round.
39:26Has to fight.
39:27Even if some judges may have him in the lead.
39:30I'll take this round for granted.
39:32He can't depend on the judges having him with a comfortable lead.
39:37And decision or not, maybe he wins this fight 100 to 90.
39:41Just in terms of the way the standard he has set for himself.
39:44The way he wants to perform, the message he wants to send to the rest of the welterweight division.
39:47Uh, it would do him great good to win this last round convincingly.
39:57But again, Mesaud's a tricky opponent, and Guerrero has struggled all night consistently
40:03to find the distance and the timing and the angle to land that right hand.
40:13And there's Mesaud.
40:14Back on the jab.
40:15Another left hand over the top.
40:18Good combination to Mesaud.
40:20Guerrero answers with the right hand on the bottom right hand.
40:22Huge right hand.
40:23He jacks the mouthpiece from Mesaud's jaw.
40:26Another right hand.
40:27And we might get a stop if they run up.
40:30There's Mesaud's corner man running up the green step,
40:33calling into this fight.
40:34A brave, alert, timely decision.
40:35Well, I don't know.
40:36I don't know about that one because even his own fighter is really annoyed.
40:44I mean, he lost the mouthpiece, but there's no stopping the action unless there's a lull for the mouthpiece to be reinserted.
40:50Thought it was a bit of a premature decision by the corner.
40:52But that's the point.
40:53The fact that there was no stopping the action.
40:55And this guy has wobbled and Christopher Guerrero is teeing off on him.
40:59Sandy Mesaud is annoyed now because he's had 5, 10, 15 seconds to recover.
41:03But in the heat of the action, he was wobbled.
41:05He has no mouth guard in his mouth.
41:07Christopher Guerrero is just lining him up, teeing off with the right hand.
41:10For the first time all night, he landed several clean right hands in a row.
41:15I don't know Morgan on that one.
41:16And as you said, the corner knows the fighter better than anyone.
41:20And so they've seen Sandy Mesaud in all types of situations.
41:23You don't often see him hurt like that.
41:24This is a guy that never gets knocked out.
41:26No, that's what they're telling him now?
41:28Justifying what you're saying, right?
41:29Yes.
41:30But I was still surprised by how quickly they run up the zone at the time.
41:35But that's my point.
41:36They have seen him in all kinds of situations.
41:38They probably rarely have ever seen him hurt like that.
41:42It's only the second time he's ever been knocked out in his career.
41:44Yes, this is a guy that does not get stopped.
41:46This is a guy that goes the distance.
41:47I would have liked to see with the scorecards.
41:49I mean, I think they will be released because this theoretically has a title.
41:53Yes.
41:54WC Continental title on the lens.
41:56We'd like to see what the scorecards were leading up into that stoppage win for Christopher Guerrero.
41:59So talk about having desperation in that tenth round.
42:02You were more interested in Morgan, right?
42:03There he is.
42:04Boom.
42:05The counter right hand.
42:07And he is rattled.
42:09He's almost out on his feet.
42:10And right there, Matthew, when you saw Sandy Mesaud's right jaw hit his right shoulder
42:17as a result of a punch that Christopher Guerrero hit him with, his head whiplashed.
42:22Those are the punches that usually put people out.
42:25And if you're his coach and he looks like he's out on his feet.
42:28There's not a lot you can do if you want to safeguard your fighter's safety.
42:32I don't have a problem with that stoppage at all.
42:34No, I'm not saying I have a problem with it.
42:35I'm just saying it's interesting that they didn't want to at least give him another ten seconds
42:39knowing the tenth round.
42:40But I guess you can look at the time when your fighter's hurt.
42:42Yes, exactly.
42:43They got to look at it the same way a referee does when it comes down to safety.
42:53That was a big, big turning point in that fight because it would have been extremely interesting
42:59to see what happens.
43:00But that's why every second of every round counts and Christopher Guerrero unloaded towards
43:05the end of the tenth round to make sure it didn't go to the scorecard.
43:07Yeah, and he also made a liar out of me because I spent nine and a half rounds,
43:11saying that you're not going to hit a home run against Sandy Mesaud.
43:14And halfway through the ninth round, or halfway through the tenth round,
43:18nine and a half rounds into the fight, Christopher Guerrero winds up and hits that home run.
43:30Regardless of now the outcome is a knockout win for Christopher Guerrero,
43:33there's still a lot to go to the drawing board with.
43:35Yes.
43:36When you talked about Morgan earlier about they already knew that there was levels
43:39of the welterweight division, Christopher Guerrero has not achieved or attained just yet,
43:42even though he's in the top 15 in the rankings.
43:44This type of performance is one where you're going to have to look at strategically.
43:47Why weren't you able to let your hands go?
43:49Why did you make this a more difficult fight than it needed to be?
43:52And the short answer to that is he's fighting guys who are a lot trickier now
43:55than the guys he was fighting before that.
43:57And sort of the Dennis Dowdy fight was the turning point.
44:00Oliver Quintana, Sandy Massaoud, much tougher to hit than anyone Christopher Guerrero had fought
44:06up until that point.
44:08And Patrick Lono with the official particulars.
44:11Ladies and gentlemen official time, two minutes 28 seconds of round number 10.
44:26Referee Alain Villeneuve stops the fight at the request of the blue corner.
44:31Votre gagnant, your winner, and still WBC Continental America's welterweight champion, Christopher Machine Gun Guerrero!
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