Robert
”
The Ghost
”
Guerrero will fight Daud Yordan Saturday night at HP Pavilion in
San Jose
DGILROYa
Robert Guerrero knows exactly how far he has come. All he has to do is look around.
While bobbing and weaving in the middle of an empty ring in a mostly empty gym last week, Guerrero is talking about his upbringing. Not the one which has always taken place in his hometown of Gilroy, but the upbringing a boxing career requires when money is absent but potential is plentiful. The sacrifices on the road – from staying in motel rooms that were never vacant of roaches to storing a week’s worth of food in Styrofoam coolers to save money to hearing the prostitutes serenading cars around the corner at night- these are all memories that aren’t likely to be repeated for the 25-year-old two-time former IBF featherweight champ.
“The Vagabond Inn wasn’t as bad as the Travelodge,” Guerrero says before mentioning one night in particular, when two rival Los Angeles gangs pulled their cars into his motel’s parking lot, got out carrying knives and bats, and, well, you can guess the rest.
“It was like watching a movie,” Guerrero says.
“I think they were making a movie, eh?” Robert’s father and trainer, Ruben Guerrero, says with a wry smile.
Moments like these are easier to appreciate now.
“Those are the times that make you hard,” Guerrero says.
Life isn’t easy nowadays for the fighter known simply as “The Ghost” to his fans, but Guerrero is doing everything he’s ever wanted to do with his career, all while being surrounded by the people he cares about most.
Taking on Daud “Cino” Yordan (23-0, 17 KOs) for the NABO junior lightweight title, as part of HBO’s Boxing After Dark series Saturday at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Guerrero (23-1-1, 16 KOs) will be fighting for a championship belt just 30 minutes away from where his biggest fans reside. A father of two, Guerrero and his wife, Casey, are finally getting settled now that her leukemia is in remission. The business side of boxing has never been better for Guerrero, who signed with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions in December. The local fighter is also opening a new gym in Gilroy on Church St. and Welburn Ave. Guerrero’s brother, Ruben Jr., will be managing the fight club, which will feature boxing, mixed martial arts and wrestling, and is scheduled to open its doors in a couple weeks.
Having already fought on one of boxing’s biggest cards this year – Guerrero recorded a 43-second knockout of Edel Ruiz on the Jan. 24 undercard of Shane Mosley-Antonio Margarito – The Ghost’s management team feels like each fight, assuming it ends in a Guerrero victory, is bringing the Gilroy native that much closer to the mountain-top of his sport. Getting together with Golden Boy after an 11-month layoff due to a contractual dispute with former promoter Dan Goossen is a big reason for such expectations.
“Having a promoter work with you is huge,” says Bob Santos, Guerrero’s co-manager. “The professionalism of Golden Boy, I can’t say enough about it. But at the end of the day, Robert has got to deliver. That is the bottom line.”
Guerrero isn’t taking Yordan lightly, but he also doesn’t seem to be too concerned considering the only real test Yordan has faced in his career was Antonio Meza (24-5-1, 16 KOs), who Yordan beat by a majority decision last September.
“I think Meza beat him,” Guerrero says before adding that his opponent is no pushover.
“He fights kind of like an Olympic boxer: The way he moves, the way he stands. He’s a good counter puncher.”
But counter punching has not worked well for many of Guerrero’s opponents. His last 15 victories have all come by some form of knockout, with two of the last three occurring in the first round. A win Saturday would give Guerrero the NABO title, which is viewed as a stepping stone title to a shot at the more prestigious WBO belt.
“You always want to be in position to weigh your options, where you’re not locked in to only fighting [in a certain sanctioning organization],” Santos said. “The proof is in the pudding with Robert. He’ll fight anybody out there.”
A win or two from now, Guerrero could have his choice of anyone out there. It’s a dream that started small and is just beginning to be realized.
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Tickets for the fight, priced at $200, $100, $60 and $25, are on sale at Ticketmaster.com, the HP Pavilion Ticket Office or by calling (408) 998-8497.Golden Boy is putting on the March 7 card, which is sponsored by Cerveza Tecate and Southwest Airlines. Doors will open at 3 p.m.udsadfsadsadsadsd
