Guerrero and Aiken square off for IBF featherweight championship
at Staples Center
By Marc David Sports Editor
Gilroy – Robert Guerrero trains in Los Angeles and has seen big fights at the Staples Center.
Now, the Gilroy fighter gets his opportunity to occupy center stage when he tries to wrest the IBF featherweight title from Eric Aiken.
The 12-round bout precedes a heavyweight elimination fight between James Toney and once-beaten Samuel Peter.
It’s been said that there is no greater teacher than defeat.
If that is so, all four combatants on the Showtime boxing card at the Staples Center in Los Angeles should have earned their Masters degrees by now.
Guerrero was on a meteoric rise up the featherweight ladder when he lost a split decision to Gamaliel Diaz. Thirteen months later, Guerrero knocked out Diaz in the sixth round to win the North American Boxing Federation featherweight title.
Aiken was considered on the way down when he lost to lightly regarded Johnnie Edwards in March. Two-and-a-half weeks later, Aiken stopped former world champion Tim Austin in the sixth round. He followed it up in May with a win when previously unbeaten Valdemir Pereira was disqualified in the eighth round of their IBF title fight for repeated low blows.
“No matter how much you think you’re humble, you need to humble yourself even more,” Guerrero said. “No matter who you’re fighting, they have two hands and can knock you out.”
Guerrero (18-1-1, 11 KOs) did not get knocked out when he fought Diaz the first time. But he did lose by split decision.
“You get in with a fighter like Diaz, he can make you look bad,” Guerrero, 23, said. “If you have a bad night, he’s going to beat you. I wanted to prove I had a bad night when I got back in the ring with him, and I knocked him out. I had to build my way back. It (first fight) was a loss, a setback. But that’s why I jumped right back in there with Diaz. It put me back in the game, worthy of a title shot.”
Aiken (16-4, 12 KOs) can relate. Austin, a former star of the lighter weights, looked at Aiken as merely an opponent. Aiken, meanwhile, needed a good performance to prove he could mix it up with the elite fighters. He got that and more.
“I get up for big fights,” said Aiken, a Maryland native who lives in Marysville, Ohio. “I’m not getting any younger. At 26, I don’t feel I have to fight lesser known fighters any more. I am fighting to get the recognition I deserve.”
Toney (69-4-3, (43 KOs), a Grand Rapids, Mich., native who lives in Los Angeles, has never received the type of recognition for his boxing skills that he feels he deserves. It rankles Toney, who won titles in three weight classes, but some of it is his own doing since he has not always been in the best of shape entering the ring. He promises that won’t be a problem.
“Sure, it bothers me all the time,” said Toney, 69-4-3, of the lack of recognition. “I know what I can do, and come Sept. 2, everyone will see.”
Peter (26-1, 22 KOs), whose nickname is “Nigerian Nightmare” and now resides in Las Vegas, promises that Toney won’t get into his mind, no matter how many derogatory statements he makes (one such was when Toney said he would send Peter back to Africa in a banana boat).
“When he gets my best punch, he will not stand up,” Peter, 26, said. “I have no anger (from what Toney has said). If he’s mad, he’s mad. If he’s crazy, he’s crazy. When I finish what I have to do, then I will go back to Africa.”
