Gilroy welterweight Robert Guerrero returns to action Aug. 27 in Anaheim, headlining a three-bout card airing on the cable network Spike.
Guerrero (33-4-1, 18 knockouts), a former world champion in four of boxing’s 17 weight divisions, will be fighting David Peralta (25-2-1, 14 knockouts), whose career prior to this month has been staged exclusively in Argentina.
It’s a chance for Guerrero to put on an impressive and perhaps dominating performance after having lost three of his five fights since the end of 2012, when he was ranked 10th in the world pound-for-pound by The Ring magazine.
Those losses have come against one of the greatest boxers of all time, Floyd Mayweather, and against unbeaten current welterweight title-holders Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia, but they have put Guerrero in the position of having to prove he’s still a viable contender.
“Peralta knows this is his chance to make a name for himself, so I know he’s coming with his very best,” Guerrero said last week at a press function in Southern California. “He’s going to realize once he’s in the ring with me that I’m not some washed-up fighter like some may think. I’ve got plenty of fight left in me and Peralta will find out what I’m all about on August 27.”
Guerrero, 33, will be in much the same position against Peralta he found himself in last year when he narrowly defeated little-known Aron Martinez, sustaining a knockdown along the way, in a bout Guerrero was expected to win impressively. He was coming off a valiant but decisive loss to Thurman three months earlier.
He’s coming off a recent loss to Garcia this time. He battled Garcia on fairly even terms, but he can’t afford anything short of a decisive victory over Peralta.
“I’m not taking Peralta lightly,” Guerrero said. “I’m coming to win and win impressively.”
The Premier Boxing Champions card at the Honda Center also features former junior middleweight contender Alfredo Angulo, one of the sport’s most feared sluggers. Angulo’s opponent is veteran Freddy Hernandez. Unbeaten 2012 Olympian Terrell Gausha takes on Steve Martinez in the opening bout.
“It’s going to be a great weekend of fights on Spike,” Guerrero said. “On Friday, you’ve got top-level MMA (mixed martial arts) fighters like Benson Henderson throwing down. He’s always giving the fans their money’s worth. On Saturday, you got Alfredo Angulo and me, who always bring excitement to the ring. We’re never in boring fights. All in all, there’s going to be a lot of action-packed fights that weekend.”
