Guerrero’s TKO of Abazi opens up opportunities
The jeers turned to cheers and a whole new world re-opened for Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero on Friday.
At 23, the Gilroy boxer is a two-time world champion having re-claimed his International Boxing Federation featherweight title belt by stopping Spend Abazi. Guerrero was in San Francisco on Tuesday at the traveling press conference featuring Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather.
The World Boxing Council light middleweight title bout set for May 5 at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino is on the mind of most fight fans. While Guerrero may never attain that type of notoriety, he has once again positioned himself as one of the top boxers in the 126-pound division.
And he was introduced in San Francisco along with Alex Smith, the 49ers starting quarterback. Mayweather stopped by to congratulate him. Guerrero also had a chance to speak with new trainer Freddie Roach, who will actually share those duties with Ruben Guerrero, Robert’s father.
Bob Santos, Robert Guerrero’s co-manager, said they are now hoping to land a fight against one of the bigger names in the division — Manny Pacquaio, Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez and Erik Morales, for example. They are willing to fight at from 126 to 130, although Santos insists Guerrero has no trouble making the featherweight limit.
But first Guerrero (20-2-1) will take a month off to get re-acquainted with his family, including Robert, Jr., his 11-day old son. Although Santos said he wants to keep Guerrero busy, the time off is not a bad idea since he has fought five times in the last nine months. Santos said he earned the rest just as he earned the admiration of the partisan Copenhagen crowd.
“It was a huge gamble,” Santos said of Guerrero taking the fight against Abazi on his home turf. “It’s very rare that anyone goes overseas and wins a world title. For him to accomplish that speaks volumes of what type of fighter he is.
“Beating a guy who’s never been stopped when you’re facing jet lag, different foods and being forced to wear foreign gloves tells you how good Robert was. Remember, this wasn’t a fight where (Abazi) had to knock us out. All he had to do was survive.”
Santos called the Abazi fight the finest performance of Guerrero’s career. He went back to being a boxer instead of a slugger, using an effective jab to set up his power punches. And for the second time in three fights, an opponent quit on his stool after the eighth round. It also helped erase the memories of his previous fight, when Orlando Salido wrested the title from Guerrero but tested positive for steroids. The IBF then mandated that Guerrero and Abazi meet for the vacant title.
“That really puts in perspective what Salido did,” Santos said. “He’s not as talented as Abazi. If he was, he wouldn’t have nine losses. It was almost a blessing that he had to go over and do what he did.”
What he did was re-establish himself as one of the elite featherweights in the world.
