As Robert
”
The Ghost
”
Guerrero was introduced before his fight against Gamaliel Diaz
at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino, his theme music from the band
Los Lonely Boys blasted through the venue, asking
”
How far is heaven?
”
Lemoore – As Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero was introduced before his fight against Gamaliel Diaz at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino, his theme music from the band Los Lonely Boys blasted through the venue, asking “How far is heaven?”
Turned out, it wasn’t very close Friday night.
Diaz, who came into the fight the No. 7 World Boxing Council featherweight, without a loss in five years, gave the unbeaten Guerrero his first loss and became the new North American Boxing Federation (NABF) Featherweight champ. Diaz (11-5-2) upset “The Ghost (16-1-1) who came into the fight the WBC’s No. 2 featherweight, in a split decision 114-113, 112-115, 115-112, after the full 12 rounds.
“I gave it all I got, but I didn’t do what I was supposed to do,” said Guerrero, who thought he had edged out the win after the final bell rung.
The Guerrero game plan was for the fighter to come out and pressure Diaz, take control and dictate the flow of the fight.
“I told him to pressure the guy with double and triple jabs, and said ‘don’t worry he’ll fall apart,'” said John Bray, Guerrero’s trainer. ” This guys not good at fighting backwards.”
But that didn’t quite happen. Instead “The Ghost” displayed patience in the opening rounds while Diaz threw plenty of punches, which gave the challenger more of the momentum.
Guerrero seemed to lose even more momentum in the fifth round when Diaz landed a few shots to “The Ghost” head.
“The Ghost” said he had wanted to throw more body shot to counter, but felt discouraged after repeating warnings from the official.
“The refs kept nagging me about my body shots being too low,” he said.
