LONG ISLAND, NY—Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero—in a fight he had hoped would show he was still a contender—couldn’t make it out of the third round.
Omar Figueroa knocked Guerrero down five times in less than three full rounds. The referee finally put an end the fight at the 1:30 mark when Guerrero went down for the fifth time.
Figueroa improves to 27-0-1 with his 19th knockout of his career.
Figueroa made his return to the ring after two years trying to heal from a pair of broken hands.
“We knew that it was going to be tough to accomplish but I had obviously trained to get the knockout,” Figueroa said, being quoted in a press release. “With my hands finally being healthy, we knew that it was actually possible.
The doctor checked on The Ghost before the start of the third round after he was knocked down three times, but OK’d him to continue.
Guerrero drops to 33-6-1 overall with the loss.
Guerrero has now lost his third match in a row and five of his last seven.
Coming into the fight, Guerrero acknowledged the pressure was on him to prove he could still compete at a high level.
The Ghost couldn’t maintain high levels of intensity, was hit by devastating shots he didn’t see coming and looked out classed by a young fighter who survived brief barrages by his opponent.
Guerrero came out with a furry in the third, but couldn’t keep the barrage going. He was knocked down for the fourth time with 2:16 left in the third. The Ghost popped back up immediately, but could only go for another 30 seconds before a blow to the lower body send Guerrero to the mat for the last time.
Guerrero looked visibly mad after the ref waived his hands, shaking off attention from the doctor.
While The Ghost controlled the first round, he wasn’t able to continue to dictate the tempo in the second as Figueroa came out firing.
Figueroa got his inside game working and landed a hard left 40 seconds into the second and stunned The Ghost.
Guerrero finally went down following a pair of upper cuts at the 1:55 mark, the first of three knockdowns in the second.
While Guerrero responded with a devastating flurry after getting off the mat, Figueroa regained control and forced Guerrero into the corner where he went down with 30 seconds left in the round.
Guerrero went down for a third time with 8 seconds left and looked wobbly getting back to his feet, but was saved by the bell.
Figueroa thought he had won the fight after the third knockdown, putting his arms in the air and smiling to the crowd.
After getting cleared to continue by the doctor, Guerrero came flying out of his corner, laying a devastating flurry on Figueroa.
But Figueroa landed a pair of hard blows that finally took the life out of The Ghost.
Figueroa clearly looked annoyed that the fight was allowed to continue after knocking Guerrero down for a fourth time.
He could be seen mouthing “come on man” when the official didn’t immediately end the fight.
“After the first knockdown I knew that the instinct would kick-in for him and he’d go all out,” Figueroa said. “I thought it was going to be over after the first knockdown of the second round but the ref let it keep going.”
The fifth time as the ref called the fight, Figueroa shrugged and walked to his corner.
