Gilroy – With less than three weeks remaining until Robert
”
The Ghost
”
Guerrero’s second career title defense, the IBF Featherweight
champion of the world isn’t letting up. In fact, he’s sparring with
opponents that would pose far more problems than his actual Nov. 3
opponent, Martin Honorio.
Gilroy – With less than three weeks remaining until Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero’s second career title defense, the IBF Featherweight champion of the world isn’t letting up. In fact, he’s sparring with opponents that would pose far more problems than his actual Nov. 3 opponent, Martin Honorio.
On Wednesday, Guerrero (20-1-1, 13 KOs) squared-off with Salinas fighter Jose Celaya at LA Boxing Gym in San Jose. Celaya has a career record of 30-3 and provides many of the same attributes as Honorio. Except, Celaya weighs about thirty pounds heavier.
“Jose actually fights at 154 pounds, that’s four or five weight classes bigger than me,” Guerrero said. “And Jose is a crafty fighter in the ring. He moves, he changes it up, he’s slick. He’s no easy fighter. I think he was perfect in preparing me for Honorio.”
If practice makes perfect, then Guerrero has had plenty of time to eliminate any and all flaws. Originally scheduled to fight on Sept. 15, Guerrero has had an extra month and a half to prepare after the fight was canceled along with all of the bouts on Golden Boy Promotions’ “Fireworks” card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The main event between Juan Manuel Marquez and Rocky Juarez, along with Guerrero and Honorio (24-3-1, 12 KOs), will now be fought at the Desert Diamond Casino in Arizona. The broadcast has also been changed; from HBO PPV to cable channel Showtime.
According to Guerrero – who said he was in the best shape of his life when the card was canceled – the extra time was more than necessary.
“I was right there and everything was just maintaining, and when it gets pushed back another month, it’s basically touchy because you don’t want to overwork,” he said. “You can only peak so far and then start coming downhill.”
While The Ghost did consider heading back to Big Bear Lake where he conducted his prior training, he and his team decided staying in Gilroy was the best decision from a common-sense standpoint. With plenty of sparring partners in the Gilroy and Salinas areas, and only a short amount of time between now and the fight, leaving wouldn’t have been cost efficient. Despite staying in Gilroy, Guerrero did say that he will have to seclude himself at times from his wife and children to keep his legs strong and his focus sharp.
Getting in the ring with Celaya and sparring with a live body that gives shots as good as it gets on Wednesday was something Guerrero believes will give him an additional edge over Honorio.
“It’s like any other sport,” Guerrero said. “You learn more doing it than practicing it, like on a bag or doing drills. You learn more in live action. It’s basically like, if you play baseball, you hit a pitching machine and you can hit it all day. You go against live pitching, it changes it up. They start throwing curves. In boxing, it’s the same thing. You got fire coming back at you.”
And as for whether or not The Ghost will have the fire in his belly after an eight month layoff?
“Oh yeah, I’m where I need to be,” he said. “And fight night I’ll be peaking.”
