Gilroy
– Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero keeps adding weapons to his
arsenal. For Friday night’s first-round knockout of Sammy Ventura
at the Palace Indian Gaming Center in Lemoore, Guerrero unveiled a
more powerfully compact straight right hand then the southpaw from
Gilroy had displayed previously.
Gilroy – Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero keeps adding weapons to his arsenal.
For Friday night’s first-round knockout of Sammy Ventura at the Palace Indian Gaming Center in Lemoore, Guerrero unveiled a more powerfully compact straight right hand then the southpaw from Gilroy had displayed previously. It’s a development that should have opponents sweating as the North American Boxing Federation featherweight champion mauls his way to a shot at a big-time belt.
“I get that reaction a lot when I jab these guys,” Guerrero told the Dispatch Monday, describing the shocked look on Ventura’s face when a wicked left-right combo from the Ghost dropped the Mexican fighter to the canvas for the second of three times in the bout.
“I’ll hit guys with the jab because everybody knows I’m a big left-handed puncher. One of the things me and (trainer) John Bray did (in camp before the Sept. 16 fight) was work on my right hand, educating my lead hand.”
That work paid off for Guerrero – not just in his quick dispatch of Ventura, but also in recent sparring sessions with a trio of former or current world champions: Manny Pacquiao, Isreal Vasquez and Lavka Sim.
“When I hit those guys with solid right jabs, it shocked them,” Guerrero said of those sessions. “Then they say, “Now I gotta watch out for that right hand, and the big left hand coming behind it.
“A lot of guys when they fight me, they feel they have to smother me because they know about my outside power, but when they feel that inside power, they freeze up and don’t know what to do.”
Put Ventura in the category of those who didn’t know what to do against a Ghost with knockout power in both hands, inside or outside.
Guerrero made mincemeat of the Cardenas fighter Friday night, knocking his last-minute foe out just 2:05 into the first round of their scheduled 12-round NABF featherweight title fight.
Under a full moon and clear skies at the Palace outdoor arena, Guerrero knocked Ventura (22-15, 17 KOs) down twice before landing the short left hook to the jaw that put the righty down and out.
The Ghost improved his record to 16-0-1 with 9 KOs, making it very likely that his next scheduled fight on Dec. 2 will be at least a WBC or IBF eliminator bout – possibly at San Jose’s HP Pavilion, if the Guerrero camp has its way.
Guerrero controlled every scant second of the bout. After taking a few moments to feel out Ventura with exploratory jabs, Guerrero sent an explosive straight left to the chin that planted a stunned Ventura on the canvas.
Moments later, the neat left-right combo again sent Ventura to the deck. Just seconds after Ventura assured the referee he was fine, he was back down, courtesy of the wicked left hook from the Ghost that ended the fight.
“I saw that (Ventura) kept lifting his chin on my jab,” Guerrero said in his dressing after the fight, explaining how the opportunity for the quick knockout presented itself.
“My elbow felt perfect, no problems,” added the NABF champ. The Ghost had been sidelined for the summer as he recovered from a nagging elbow injury sustained in his April NABF title fight with Adrian Valdez, which Guerrero won by knockout in the 12th and final round.
If there were any negatives to the Ventura fight, it was that Guerrero didn’t get the workout he had anticipated.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be that quick, because I didn’t know anything about (Ventura),” Guerrero said. “But right out of the gate, I started picking up habits he had, when I established the jab.
“That was a straight left that grazed him on the chin (for the first knockdown). I knew it was a flash knockdown because he wasn’t warmed up (coming into the ring). I looked in his eyes and saw that. So I eased back a little bit.
“The plan was to go in and establish the jab, then go to the body. But right away, when he stated pulling straight back and exposing himself in a way that’s dangerous to do with me, I went back in. John Bray teaches that if you see the opening and the shot, then take it. If not, don’t force it, go back to the gameplan and bang the body.
“But the opening was there, and I took it.”
Thought Guerrero won’t return to training camp for the Dec. 2 fight until early next month, he didn’t take a day off after a bout that he said “barely felt like a fight.”
Back in Gilroy, the Ghost said he had already started roadwork the day after the fight, and would continue to stay fit before camp begins.
