Robert “Nobody Wants to Fight” Guerrero
CALLS TO ACTION FELL ON DEAF EARS
Oakland, CA– It’s been close to a year since Robert Guerrero (29-1-1, 18 KOs) officially competed in a prizefight. In his last outing, he successfully defeated the rugged former WBO lightweight (135 lb.) titlist, Michael Katsidis (28-5, 23 KOs) by decision. Although Guerrero has only recorded one official loss, his career has been stalled by out-of-the-ring family issues with his wife battling Cancer and a recent injury. Due to an ailing shoulder, which required an operation, Robert missed a high profile exhibition against the hard-hitting Marcos Maidana. Since then, it appears Robert has had a tough road back and unfortunately this may not change anytime soon.
BIGGEST NAMES WANT NO PART OF GUERRERO
A couple of months ago, Robert and his manager, Bob Santos found every boxing media outlet available to sell the public on Robert’s viability to compete with the top boxers in the sport. The biggest name mentioned was welterweight (147) champ, Floyd Mayweather (42-0 26 KOs). Understandably, the assertion left many in the boxing world scratching their heads as Robert had never competed above 135 lbs.
SHOULD MISSING “GHOST” SHOULD APPEAR ON MILK CARTONS?
Floyd eventually dismissed him as a potential opponent for his scheduled May 5 clash and moved on to a much more competitive opponent in Miguel Cotto. As Mayweather’s interest clearly became absent, Robert changed his focus and called out middleweight (160) champ Sergio Martinez. This move gained little steam, being more ludicrous than Chris Bridges.
DIFFICULT SOUTHPAW NOT ON ANYBODY’S RADAR SCREEN
The available list of opponents Robert aimed to face began to shrink quickly as Martinez signed a March 17 bout against Mathew Macklin, and Floyd, who initially eyed Pacquiao decided to take on Cotto. Other reasonable opponents, such as Juan Manuel Marquez, Lamont Peterson and others were busy attempting to secure tickets in the Manny Pacquiao sweepstakes. It now appears that Peterson will face Amir Khan in a mid-May rematch, canceling an option for Robert before it was even mentioned.
MARQUEZ COULDN’T BEAT ROBERT SO THAT’S NOT HAPPENING!
Marquez, who had little interest in Guerrero when he was signed to Golden Boy Promotions (Robert’s current promoter), is now a Top Rank fighter, which makes that fights a near impossibility anyway. Even the aforementioned Marcos Maidana is scheduled to take on Devon Alexander on the 25th of this month. So what’s left for Robert at this point?
EAGER TO FIGHT ROBERT WILL HAVE MORE IDLE TIME!
Viable fights north of the lightweight division are now scarce and it’s ‘no bueno’ for Robert to continue to be inactive. The only fight that comes to mind as this story is being written, may be a match up with Pauli Malignaggi (30-4 6 KOs) as everyone else is a relatively low profile name, or simply will be more risk than reward. But that is a very unattractive fight, and it likely won’t do much for Robert’s stock unless he scores an unlikely knock out.
GUERRERO MIGHT VANISH LIKE A GHOST TILL END OF YEAR!
As of right now, it looks like Guerrero will have to again sit on the shelf, at least until the second half of the year to get a fight with the type of profile he needs to secure the paydays he believes he’s ready for. Some believe that his shoulder injury was more serious than has been expressed and Robert calling out bigger fighters is simply a plan to cash out. Either way, fight fans and the “The Ghost” himself will apparently have to some time to wait for him to reappear on the boxing landscape.
Jarrad Woods