Guerrero awaits Oct. 4 opponent in Vegas, heads down to Goossen
Camp for training, ranked 45th
GILROY – In between boxing matches, 20-year-old Robert ‘The Ghost’ Guerrero enjoys his time at home with his family in Gilroy. As the middle child of five brothers who all boxed at one point or another, Robert was always trying to stand out from the older Ruben and Victor as well as the younger Eric and Rodney.
“We support each other. But at the same time, we were all in there competing against each other. My dad liked it that way since we were all trying so hard,” Guerrero said. “We’re all boys. All boys together you’re going to get rough. He wouldn’t let up and you didn’t want to let up. When you were sparring with your brother, you wanted to get the better of him. It made us brutal.”
No wonder the undefeated pugilist – who holds a perfect 11-0 mark with four knockouts – has flattened his last two opponents before the end of the first round.
“Whoever is in front of you, you just put it on them,” said Guerrero, who leaves early Saturday morning for intense training at the infamous Goossen Camp down in Van Nuys, Calif. “It’s like if (boxing) is inherited or something. It’s just in my blood. My grandfather boxed so my dad and uncle did and the same for me and my brothers. It’s what we like to do. It’s our family sport, boxing.”
Guerrero will begin his daily workouts shortly after arriving down south – leading into his October 4 Pay-Per-View fight at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas as part of the undercard for the Evander Holyfield-James Toney headliner.
“This is the fight. I’ve got to perform well because all the HBO and Showtime people are going to be there, a lot of Internet writers, and sports journalists, too. Everybody’s there cause Toney and Holyfield,” Guerrero said. “That’s my job – to perform in there. If I perform for these guys, they’ll always put you on (other major cards). Entertain, that’s my job. I’m an entertainer in a brutal way.”
The garlic scrapper does not know his next opponent as of yet – but that’s only normal for a young, hungry fighter working hard to make his way into title contention.
“Right now, there still putting the fights together,” said the Gilroyan, not at all worried about who will be across the ring from him come October. “There’s two months left. In about a month and a half, they’ll start matching the undercards up.”
The southpaw is just happy to be in the position he is in such a short time since turning pro at age 18. So sometimes when he reflects back, even he is amazed at how far he’s already gotten.
“I never really imagined that I’d get this far, but it just happens. You work hard, you get places,” Guerrero said. “The Goossens, they want me to go for the big title within this coming year or next year. I feel real comfortable with that. Right now, they’re building me up to get into top 10.”
He’s even got his own Web site, www.theghostguerrero.com.
“It’s just a trip,” Guerrero said. “All this happening, it trips me out. It’s cool.”
Guerrero – who is ranked 45th in the world and as high as 14 in one boxing association – hit paydirt when he signed a deal with Dan Goossen Promotions and all that comes with it. He gets to train and spar with the best fighters around. And he gets only the best fights lined up for him during his road to the top.
“I’m ranked 45th in the world. That’s real, real good for only having 11 fights. There are guys who are 20-0 and not in top 500 yet,” said Guerrero, who fights in the 126-pound weight class. “Right now, I feel like I can compete with any one of (the world champions at my weight).”
For now, Guerrero will take’em as they come – continuing to make a name for himself by working hard and showing his power like two straight first-round knockouts in his past two fights.
“I’ve always had the power. I never had sparring and when you don’t have sparring, you don’t have timing. You overshoot punches,” Guerrero said. “Now that I’ve got the sparring, my punches are landing solid, right on the money. It helps out a lot.”
That’s why Guerrero goes down near Los Angeles to train with his father, Ruben, his manager Bob Santos, and the much-experienced Joe Goossen – younger brother to well-respected promoter Dan Goossen.
“They’ve been in the game for years,” said Guerrero, rambling of champions past and present like Michael Nunn, James Toney, and Gabriel and Rafael Ruelas who all train with the Goossens. “He’s just a world class trainer.”
When he is in training, Guerrero wakes up at 4:30 a.m. and is on the road running by 5 a.m. After his hour-long jog, he rests up and then heads to the gym at about 11:30 a.m. for more than three hours of gym work.
“I start off on the jump rope to warm up. From there if I set to spar, I’ll spar. If not, I’ll work drills on the bags. It depends what I do for that day,” said Guerrero, who follows a steady diet and never blows up during time off. “I try to stay within nine pounds of my weight. (When I’m in Gilroy), I just run, try to maintain, and hit the bags.”
In Gilroy, Guerrero trains at the Gilroy Youth Community Center on Sixth Street – where he got his start with the Silver & Black Boxing Club.
“I stay busy all the time in the gym,” he said. “A lot of guys take time off, but I maintain and stay in decent shape. After the gym, I just relax all day and get ready for the next day.”
During his stops down south, Guerrero rents out different apartments for months at a time. When he heads down this weekend, he’ll be staying in the same apartment complex as James Toney – who is the featured bout on the same Oct. 4 card.
“I’ll be seeing him in the gym,” Guerrero said. “He’s in the boxing game, too, so it’s somebody to associate with, get tips from, and stuff like that.”
Guerrero belongs. Manager Bob Santos sees it. The Goossen Camp sees it. There is just something very special about ‘The Ghost’.
“He’s getting stronger. He turned pro as a baby, 18 years old. He was a boy and now he’s becoming a man,” Santos said. “The thing about it is this – he’s becoming a superstar in the sport… He’s elevating to superstar-type status.”
Those childhood tussles with his brothers made him tough as nails, and soon enough Guerrero will have a chance to attain his ultimate goal of becoming the first world champion who was born and raised in Gilroy.
