Physical damage from the shoulder injury that prompted Robert
Guerrero to back out of his upcoming showdown with WBA interim
super lightweight champ Marcos Maidana could pale in comparison to
the public-relations hit
”
The Ghost
”
is sure to take in the coming days.
Physical damage from the shoulder injury that prompted Robert Guerrero to back out of his upcoming showdown with WBA interim super lightweight champ Marcos Maidana could pale in comparison to the public-relations hit “The Ghost” is sure to take in the coming days.
The Gilroy native and five-time world titleholder was set to fight Maidana on Aug. 27 at HP Pavilion in what was viewed as gutsy homecoming test for Guerrero, who was moving up a weight class to take on the hard-hitting Argentinian.
That is until Thursday when Golden Boy Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer confirmed Guerrero had dropped out of the fight because of the injury he suffered to his left shoulder during a sparring session at his training camp in Big Bear.
The lefty was scheduled for an MRI Thursday.
“He injured his shoulder to the point where it was numb. He couldn’t move it at all,” Schaefer said during a conference call.
“They iced it in hopes that it would get better overnight. It did not. It was worse. He couldn’t put a jacket on or a shirt — can’t move the arm at all. They are afraid it could be a torn rotator cuff.”
As legitimate – and serious – as the injury sounds, it will surely not rank well in the court of public opinion. Guerrero was under social-media attack within minutes of the fight’s cancellation, including this Twitter post by IBF and WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan:
“No injury, I reckon maidana payed off Guerero step aside money, so he can become the WBA champ becus I have moved up as WBa super champ.” (sic)
Two years ago Guerrero became the target of more ignorant criticism after he unknowingly took himself out of a fight against Daud Yordan after a deep gash opened above Guerrero’s right eye.
“The referee asked if I could see. I said, ‘no,’ and the fight was stopped,” Guerrero said in an interview on Friday Night Fights. The match was ruled a no-contest.
We all remember what happened next. Guerrero vacated the ring to a chorus of boos and was written off as soft and — as if those championship belts meant nothing. Three months later, he pounded Efren Hinojosa for a eight-round victory by technical knockout, and the boos went away.
That Guerrero has suffered a more damaging setback this close to arguably his biggest fight yet, a 12-round bout that was part of HBO’s Boxing After Dark, is as bad as it gets for the 28 year old.
Guerrero (29-1-1, 18 KOs) understood what was at stake. Last month he said the fight with Maidana (30-2) was “going to be a war,” and he was perfectly fine with that. Guerrero had the option of facing a lesser opponent but wanted to take on “one of the best fighters in the world, period,” according to his manager, Bob Santos. A Ghost win, or even a respectable loss, would have opened doors to bigger fights.
Instead Guerrero might be back to where he was two years ago in the minds of his detractors: coming off a fate worse than defeat.
