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01/04/2005 Archived Entry: "Interview: Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero Takes RSR the Distance"
Interview: Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero Takes RSR the Distance
By Dave McKee/Ringside Report.com (December 31, 2004)
Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero
He's known as 'The Ghost,' and he haunts the Featherweight division. He grows stronger with every fighter he puts away. An unexpected humility softens his tremendous confidence. He is a gentleman of faith, and a Samaritan in his community. He's also a true student of the pugilistic arts, though there is at least one major hole in his curriculum to date: he has not yet learned to lose.
Robert Guerrero, (14-0-1, 7 KO's) was the youngest boxer ever to fight in the Olympic trials. From his troublesome southpaw stance he throws bombs with both hands and wields a rapier jab when he needs to. Having been taken into the deep water for the first time in a recent fight with veteran Enrique Sánchez, Guerrero responded by reinventing his style in mid-fight and scoring a TKO. In his next fight he thrilled with a glorious KO and earned the NABF Featherweight Belt.
Guerrero was as much delight to interview as he is inspiring to watch fight. His responses were invariably insightful, and his energy and confidence were palpable. This is a fighter to watch, a bright star looking for, and likely to achieve, superstardom.
DM: How does it feel to have won the North American Boxing Federation (NABF) Featherweight title?
I'm very excited, especially with the fashion I won it in, too. It felt great!
DM: You've had a lot of success as an amateur. How does this compare?
It ranks up there. In the amateur's I was the youngest ever to be in the Olympic trials. Other than that, it's one of the greatest feelings I've felt in boxing. I knocked him out in the fourth round, and I'm just stoked about it.
DM: You have a perfect record, except for the draw…
That draw should have been a knockout. Everybody clearly saw what went on there. I felt that clearly should have been a knockout, but the referee made his ruling on it. You know, what can you do? He's the man in charge in there.
DM: That must have been really frustrating. The guy quits after being hit. You ought to get credit for that.
Yes, it was a clean shot to the ribs. Right when I threw the shot the ref yelled, 'break!' It landed. He went down, and he used it as a way out. He didn't want to fight. He was scared. You know how that goes. Sometimes they try to find any way out. It really disappoints me to have a draw with that guy, when he doesn't deserve a draw.
DM: Something has me amazed as I look over your record. Your last fight, for the title, that was a clean knockout - he's down for the count. All of your other knockouts were technical knockouts. I'm not disparaging the others, but this is a step up in terms of the damage you did to him, and this is supposed to be the toughest guy you've met. It seems like the tougher the fights are, the better you are performing in them. It seems like with anyone else's record, they have a string of knockouts at the beginning of their career, then they start having decisions. What is your explanation for that?
Coming out of the amateur's you've got that amateur style. You're fighting four-rounders. You just got to have that speed to get in there get the points, win the fight, get the win. Now I'm becoming a true professional fighter. I've always had the power to knock a guy out, but I was always on the move. I never sat down on my shots with total balance and really planted my feet. Now I'm using the jab, breaking a guy down by hitting him with more body shots. You know, they say when the body goes the head goes.
I've got my new team. My dad is a great amateur trainer, but in the pro's you've got to make that change.
DM: I wondered if switching trainers from your Dad to John Bray had something to do with it.
It had a lot to do with it. I was blessed with God-given talent. Power. Speed. All the attributes he's blessed me with is a package to be not just a champion, but a dominant champion for a long time. All I needed was that someone who has the knowledge, who can recognize the stuff that I'm not doing, and put all my tools to use.
I've got John Bray now. I was with Joe Goosen, but it wasn't working out. He wasn't bringing out the true Robert Guerrero. Now that I'm with John Bray, he's really honing my skills. He's taking the time in the gym to really focus on what I need to do in the ring and how to do it the right way. Before [trainers] would show me how to do it, but I was so talented that I'd just pick stuff up fast. I would pick it up so fast I wasn't doing it the right way. It would be like showing me 2+2=4, without showing me how it adds up to four, but that's what John Bray is doing.
Being with him has been a great experience. He's polishing up [what I brought from the amateurs]. He's showed me I have to sit down, relax a little more. I've got to fire the jab, bring it down to the body, step around to the side, always be on balance, punch off of angles. He's showing me how to shift my weight with my punches, so now when I shift my weight - and I hit hard as it is - it's just that much harder with the shift.
He's really working on my defense, because when you get to the elite level with the Marquez's, Pacquiao's, the Barrera's, the Morales's, the only thing that separates you is error. They make you make those mistakes. They know how to open you up. What's going to separate you is what you've got in your mind, and how you work the guy, how you set him up. That's all that will separate you.
Now I am able to get in there and dictate the fight. I can get in there and get these guys to do what I want them to do. It's not just exchanging punches.
DM: You've pointed out that you have to reshape some of your amateur style to be effective in the pros, but what did the amateurs teach you that is still helpful? What did that experience provide that you bring into the ring now?
It showed me how to fight. That's the bottom line, I can fight. My Dad told me, 'Hey, you're going to get in there and throw those hard punches at these kids. You're not going to just paddy-pat. You're going to get in there and throw hard shots that will do some damage.' From that, I have that fire, that killer instinct to get in there and fire shots and hurt the guy.
All that stuck with me. When I got into the pros I was doing that, but I was always on the move. I was dropping guys, I was hurting guys, but early in my career I didn't have the pro knowledge that allowed to see he was hurt and go to the body, then come back up to the head and finish him. Before it was just like, he's down, get excited and jump on him and start throwing a lot of punches. And the guy would end up tying me up or get through the round because I'm just throwing a lot of little flurries.
DM: Who would be the model fighter for you, the kind of boxer you would really like to emulate?
The model fighter that I would want to work like is Pernell Whitaker. Look what he did to Chavez. If you think about it, he was a great fighter. He is a southpaw, just like me. When he's in that ring, it's just so smooth, and looks effortless. It looks like a walk in the park to him.
DM: Whenever you see a southpaw fighting, the commentators always play that up, talking about how difficult it is to fight a southpaw, how the fighters will get their feet tangled. How much of an advantage is it for you?
It can be a huge advantage if you know how to work it. If you know how to use that stance against somebody. You can be in the southpaw stance and just stand there slugging, and it won't do you any good. But if you bring the science into it, then the guy's in big trouble. Like this guy I just fought, Cesar Figueroa, he was so befuddled when he got in there with me. It made it easy for me to get my shots off. I was so relaxed. I saw every punch he was going to throw, every move he was going to do.
DM: Do you find it confuses other southpaws as well?
Yes, it does. It even got me a little bit, when I fought Enrique Sánchez. I was a little skeptical about what to do, so I just went to the jab. That's what really made me and my management crew really think that now we've got to get a guy that can take us to that next level. That's when we went out and got John Bray.
DM: Sánchez took you eight rounds. That's as deep as you had ever been, isn't it?
Yes. That's what made me realize, hey, these guys ain't falling anymore with these big shots. Even though they are a little past their prime, they've got that experience. They know how to survive. They know how to get you into that deep water. They know when to punch, when not to punch and when to save energy or when to get their shots off.
DM: When you entered the seventh round of that fight, were you thinking about the fact you were so deep into the fight?
I lost count of rounds. I was like, what round is this? I was used to one, two rounds, put these guys out. He took me pretty deep, and I started thinking this guy came to fight. He's ready. He's an old man, but I could see the little subtle things he does in there, like when I would shoot those hard left hands and he'd just drop his head down. I'd hit him on top of the head. I busted up my knuckle in that fight. That was my power hand, and it was getting hard to throw it after a while. I had to really rely on my jab, keep picking at his cut and keep swelling him up. By the eighth round he just said, 'Hey, I've had enough.'
DM: I've read that you would like to go up in weight after conquering this division. How many weight classes do you think you've got in you, that you could find success in?
I think I've got the size to get up to 154 pounds. I'm 5'9". I've got a 71" reach. And, now I'm learning how to fight so that I'm not taking punishment, making these guys make mistakes and dictating the fight with my jab. Right now we're just scratching the surface with John. He has so much knowledge; it just makes me want to be out there with him every single day. It excites me now that I have a trainer who can say, this is the guy we're going to fight, this is the game plan, this is what we've got to work on. He's the type of guy that will go according to what that guy's style is.
DM: Do you have an agreement in the works for another fight?
I've got to defend my NABF title within 90 days. Whoever they put in front of me, I'll be ready, it doesn't matter. I am ready to fight anybody. It doesn't matter if it is Barrera or Pacquiao. With what I've been learning, and, you know, I've got that one punch knockout power in both hands. Adding all I've learned to my power package makes me that much more devastating. And the more I fight, the more I am in camp, the more I'm going to learn. Like I said, right now we're just scratching the surface.
DM: You got into boxing, because your family is a huge boxing family. I heard that even your aunt is a boxer.
Yes. *laughing* She boxed as an amateur up until she was in junior high. It's funny, you know, I am from a small town. A lot of people from the town boxed in the same gym, and my Aunt beat them all up. It's funny, because a lot of those guys are football coaches or baseball coaches, and I go to the games and see them. They start talking about boxing. They say, 'Yeah, I used to box with your Dad and your Uncle.' I go, 'you forgot to mention my Aunt!' She was really good.
My Grandfather boxed. He's the one who put her in boxing. You know, a fighter can see the talent in somebody. He saw her beating up on a couple of my Uncles. He cut her hair short like a boy. She wanted to box, so he told her, 'Don't say you're a girl.' But when she got into Jr. High the boxing team noticed she wouldn't change in the boy's locker room. After that all the guys were embarrassed.
DM: You said earlier that winning the belt was your best memory in boxing. What was your worst memory?
My worst memory had to be along with a good memory. Being at the Olympic Trials at 16 years old, I was excited to be there. I was determined to win and make the Olympic team. That's one of every young fighter's dreams. I was so excited to be there, and I was fighting hard. I lost to Clarence Vinson in the quarter finals. I really thought I beat him, because all he did was hold me and run. If it was a pro fight I would have won the fight easy.
DM: A lot has been made of the failures of America's Olympic boxing teams in the recent couple of Olympics. Is there a problem with the way American amateurs are trained?
I think it's a big problem. I think it's really hurting boxing. The amateur system now is basically tapping and running. A lot of these kids coming up are not truly learning how to fight. You see some of these guys like a Ricardo Williams, he had that amateur style down so good. It took him so far in the pros, because of his talent level, but then when he got in with someone like Juan Valenzuela who could move and get in and work the ring and make you make mistakes he was done.
A lot of these guys that come from Mexico and turn pro out of nowhere with no amateur experience are doing real good, because our amateur point system is just pat-pat-pit-pat. When you get in those deeper rounds you can't pit-pat and run all night.
Look at the Cubans, they go in there to fight and hit those body shots. They hurt these guys. With that pit-pat you don't earn anyone's respect, and when you go into a fight you've got to get that respect right away.
DM: What do fans who are just being introduced to you really need to know about you?
Just my faith in Jesus Christ. That should say it all. Boxing's not as bad as people think it is. You've just got to open your eyes and look for the fighters you like. There are a lot of great fighters, but there is that small bunch of bad guys that people always see. There's always a bad side and a good side to things. If people could overlook the bad, they would find people like me, like Miguel Cotto, like Rocky Juarez, Jeff Lacy or Chris Byrd. There's a lot of good-hearted fighters and gentlemen in boxing, that aren't barbaric and crazy. There's a lot of family men, like Paulie Ayala.
I want to be that person who lifts boxing up. I want to be that person who draws in the average blue collar person to watch boxing again. Not just the die hard fan, but the ordinary fan, the soccer fan, the baseball fan. I want to be the person who sparks people to say boxing's not as bad as people think.
You can visit Robert's boxing site at: http://www.theghostguerrero.com/
