Robert ‘The Ghost’ Guerrero Loses Title Belt in 2-1 Split
Decision
Lemoore – As Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero was introduced before his fight against Gamaliel Diaz at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino, his theme music from the band Los Lonely Boys blasted through the venue, asking “How Far is Heaven?”
Turned out, it wasn’t very close Friday night.
Diaz, who came into the fight the No. 7 World Boxing Council (WBC) Featherweight without a loss in five years, gave the unbeaten Guerrero his first loss and became the new North American Boxing Federation (NABF) Featherweight champ. Diaz (11-5-2) upset the Ghost (16-1-1), who came into the fight the WBC’s No. 2 featherweight, in split decision 114-113, 112-115, 115-112 after the full 12 rounds.
“I gave it all I got, but I didn’t do what I was supposed to do,” said Guerrero, who thought he had edged out the win after the final bell rang.
The Guerrero game plan was for the fighter to come out and pressure Diaz, take control and dictate the flow of the fight.
“I told him to pressure the guy with double and triple jabs, and said ‘Don’t worry, he’ll fall apart,'” said John Bray, Guerrero’s trainer. “This guy’s not good at fighting backwards.”
But that didn’t quite happen. Instead, the Ghost displayed patience in the opening rounds while Diaz threw plenty of punches, which gave the challenger more of the momentum.
Guerrero seemed to lose even more momentum in the fifth round when Diaz landed a few shots to the Ghost’s head.
The Ghost said he had wanted to throw more body shots than he did to counter, but felt discouraged after repeated warnings from the official.
“The ref kept nagging me about my body shots being too low,” he said.
In the seventh round, Guerrero looked like he might take control of the fight for good. Amidst chants of “Robert, Robert!” from the pro-Guerrero crowd, the Ghost escaped a number of big swings from the tiring Diaz and ended the round by landing two right jabs.
But Diaz didn’t back down. As the later rounds wore on, the two fighters grew increasingly more fatigued and locked up more often, which frustrated Guerrero.
“It was kind of hard to get shots off when you have a guy throwing his head around like a punch,” Guerrero said.
In the 12th and final round, Diaz and Guerrero locked up several times with the challenger attempting to hook the Ghost’s head. Finally, the official deducted a point from Diaz for hitting Guerrero in the back of the head. The final round gave Guerrero confidence about the decision.
“I felt I was already winning the round. I was pressuring and ended with a lot of short shots,” the Ghost said. “I thought I edged it out but the judges seemed to see it different.”
Neither Guerrero nor Bray were surprised at the fight Diaz gave. The fighter was expected to be the Ghost’s toughest challenge yet.
“I thought he did a great job. I tip my hat off to him,” Guerrero said. “I’ve just got to listen to that corner.”
