By: Jeff Townsend, Boxing writer
Bayareasportsdrive.com
6-14-09
Robert ‘The Ghost’ Guerrero had a lot to prove for
the first time in his career on Friday night. In his last fight, back
in March of this year at the HP Pavilion, Guerrero’s anticipated
match-up with Daud Yordan on HBO was prematurely stopped in the second
round due to a bad cut over Guerrero’s right eye. The cut had occurred
due to an accidental headbutt, prompting the ring doctor to take a look
at the cut very soon after it opened up. In response to the doctor’s
questions, Guerrero said that he could not see. This forced the doctor
to stop the fight which prompted some criticism of Guerrero for being so
quick to admit that he could not see, knowing that the fight would
probably be stopped with such an admission.
The
cameras again were focused on Guerrero, this time televised by ESPN2’s
weekly ‘Friday Night Fights’. Guerrero (24-1-1, 17 KOs) of Gilroy,
California was matched against Efren Hinojosa (30-6-1, 17 KOs) of Mexico
City, Mexico in the 10 round lightweight main event at the HP Pavilion
in San Jose, California. Guerrero has fought nearly his entire career
at featherweight (126) and has only recently moved up to junior
lightweight (130) for his last two fights. This would be his first
fight at lightweight (135) which was agreed to only because Hinojosa is
a natural lightweight and he was the only opponent available on such
short notice. A previous opponent had dropped out to an injury which
prompted some quick work by the matchmakers.
At 37 and fighting professionally for 14 years,
Hinojosa is a seasoned veteran who is a tough, game fighter. Going into
the Guerrero fight, it had been four years since he had won a fight and
seven years since beating good quality fighters. That being said,
Hinojosa is not a washed up fighter whatsoever and was expected to be
competitive with Guerrero.
In the beginning of the fight, Guerrero came out
fighting in his usual southpaw stance, working behind his jab and
looking to land straight left hands. Guerrero does a very good job of
tucking his chin and being tightly compacted as he comes toward his
opponent. In contrast, Hinojosa stands up straight when he fights which
makes him less agile in the ring while giving his opponent a lot of body
to hit.
Guerrero threw some pretty crisp jabs in the
second round which helped him to set up some stinging straight left
hands to Hinojosa’s face. Looking very focused, Guerrero used good
movement to set up a decent number of sharp punches. With Hinojosa
continuing to stand tall in front of him, the landscape to land a good
number of punches was made very available to Guerrero.
By the third round, Guerrero began pawing with his
jab which essentially made it just a rangefinder for his straight left
hand. Due to the lack of a real jab coming at him, Hinojosa took this
opportunity to throw more punches. A few good right hands landed for
Hinojosa but Guerrero answered back immediately with a barrage of his
own. In the middle rounds, Guerrero clearly was feeling confident and
focused on landing hard left hands. Since he was not setting up his
punches with a jab, Guerrero used his superior foot movement to move
around his opponent and close the distance when he wanted to engage.
By the seventh round, it was clear that Guerrero
had been effective in landing some solid shots as Hinojosa was bleeding
from the nose and mouth. The referee remained very close to the
fighters throughout the round, as if he was on the verge of jumping in
and stopping the fight at any moment. Then it happened. Guerrero
sustained a cut over his left eye. However, this cut was on the outside
of the eye and Guerrero kept fighting despite the trickle of blood that
began to flow down his face.
The fighters went back to their respective corners
at the end of the seventh round and it felt like everyone in attendance
was looking at the overhead video screen to get a better look at
Guerrero’s cut. However, Guerrero almost seemed to smile a little when
he went back to his corner. Guerrero stepped up the pace in the eighth
round which would end up being the last round. Hinojosa had dislocated
his elbow at the very end of the eighth round which forced the fight to
be stopped between rounds. The stoppage meant that Guerrero won via
eighth round TKO and Hinojosa’s night was over.
The Future for
Robert ‘The Ghost’ Guerrero
After the fight, Guerrero’s co-manager Shelly
Finkel told reporters ringside that a deal that just been struck for
Guerrero to challenge for the IBF super featherweight title against
current titleholder Malcolm Klassen (24-4-2, 15 KOs) of South Africa.
The fight will take place as the co-main event for Juan Diaz-Paulie
Malignaggi on August 22 at the Toyota Center in Houston, TX.
Guerrero is a very good fighter technically and
has solid fundamentals. He must remain consistent and disciplined
throughout any fight. The one aspect that must be worked on is his
jab. In the majority of the fight, Guerrero merely pawed with the jab
as opposed to throwing a hard, crisp jab. Granted, Hinojosa was there
to be hit and Guerrero probably needed the rounds but an effective jab
is essential if he wants to challenge the best in the game.
Garcia Destroys
Miranda in 2
Undefeated Danny Garcia (13-0, 8 KOs) of
Philadelphia, PA kept his undefeated record in tack by knocking out Pavel Miranda (18-4, 10 KOs) of Tijuana, Mexico in the second round of
their scheduled eight round welterweight bout. This fight was the
opening bout on the ‘Friday Night Fights’ telecast and was promoted as
the co-main event. Shortly after the second round began, Garcia landed
a quick left hook followed by a hard right hand. Miranda immediately
fell down, with his head striking the canvas fairly hard. Miranda
somehow made the count, just barely, and rushed at Garcia in an effort
to clinch. It was not long after that when a Garcia right hand
connected to Miranda’s temple, sending him to the canvas for a second
time in the round. The referee had seen enough and called an end to the
fight. It was not surprising that Miranda could not have avoided the
initial two-punch combination since the punches occurred so blazing fast
that they still looked quick on the slow motion replay. Watch out for
Garcia but you might just have to watch the replay to actually see what
happens.
Undercard
Results
Ashanti Jordan (10-0, 7 KOs) def. Andrae Carthron
(2-2-1, 1 KO) via Majority Decision.
Anthony Johnson (2-0) def. Henry Wells (0-2) via
Unanimous Decision
Yohan Banks (2-2-2, 1 KO) technical draw in round 2
vs. David Johnson (5-21-6)
Attendance at the HP Pavilion in San Jose,
California was 3,234.
Email Jeff with questions or comments at
jtownsend@bayareasportsdrive.com
