By Dan Ambrose: Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (32-2-1, 18 KO’s) looked like the loser last Saturday night instead of the winner in his fight against Yoshihiro Kamegai (24-2-1, 21 KO’s) after receiving a 12 round unanimous decision win at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. With one eye badly swollen and purplish, Guerrero made excuses for why he had struggled so badly with the 29-year-old Kamegai.

Guerrero’s main excuse was that he chose to slug with Kamegai instead of boxing him, as if to make it sound like he had given the Japanese fighter a handicap instead of giving him credit. But after giving a number of interviews, Guerrero finally gave Kamegai some credit, saying “This guys a lot tougher than Berto. He hit hard. He has a weird awkward style. He throws weird right hands. He was strong. He was trying to lay me out with that right hand.”

Saying that Kamegai was tougher than Berto is kind of a backhanded compliment because Berto hasn’t looked like the fighter he once was since 2008, and there’s an argument to be made that he was always a limited fighter to begin with. Before Guerrero beat him, Berto had already lost to Victor Ortiz, so you have to wonder why Guerrero was fighting Berto in the first place instead of someone a little more relevant.

The fact of the matter is Kamegai was able to get to Guerrero even when he was moving around and trying to box. If you look at the rounds where Guerrero tried to move, Kamegai did a great job of getting to him to nail him with big shots. We saw this happening again and again. Guerrero tried to move, but Kamegai cut off the ring on him, and forced him to trade shots whether he wanted to or not.

Guerrero also looked tried, and unable to keep moving. He had talked up him working with Crossfit before the fight, but Guerrero still looked very tired in the later rounds of the fight due to the pressure that Kamegai was putting on him, as well as the big body shots he kept nailing him with.