On Saturday night when Robert Guerrero faces Joel Casamayor from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, sitting ringside will be his wife, Casey. While her husband fights inside the ring to support their family, Casey herself has been waging a brave battle against leukemia. Since 2007, she has been afflicted with this disease and in late January, she underwent a bone marrow transplant after a match for her had been found in Europe.
During this period, Guerrero was scheduled to face Michael Katsidis in the spring. The decision was made to pull the plug on that assignment.
“It was rough,” Guerrero admitted of that stretch of time. “I was up at Stanford Hospital a lot, spending multiple days out there and just continuing to be with my wife. That was one of the tough decisions me and the team had to make and, you know, I feel we made a great decision on doing that. Now, it?s time to rock and roll and go into the future.”
You get the sense that Casey isn?t completely out of the woods (you never really are with cancer) but for now, she?s been given a clean bill of health. “I feel really good, actually. Stronger and healthier with more energy,” she told Maxboxing last week. Casey, whose condition had relapsed in the past, says that going through this ordeal doesn?t get any easier as you go along. It sound so clich? but how can you deny it? For them, every day is a blessing. “Yeah,” she agreed. “Because going through a transplant, it?s like a 50-50 chance of survival. My life was saved by somebody, so I?m blessed every day. I thank God everyday.”
Once again, Guerrero had to face the specter of losing his spouse and raising their two kids alone.
“It?s a 50-50 chance if you?re going to get through it or not. That was real scary, hearing that from some of the best doctors in the world at Stanford,” said Guerrero, who fought on April the 30th, stopping Roberto Arrieta in eight rounds. Currently they have two kids, daughter Savannah, who is five, and young infant son, Robert Jr. “The thought was there but I tried not to think about it too much. I had a lot of faith in God and that?s what I did; I just kept everything positive and looked toward her getting better and try not to have any negativity in there. It?s like going into a boxing match where you don?t want to go in there and doubting yourself. Because as soon as you start doubting yourself, that?s when the wheels start turning in your brain and you start thinking of what could go wrong. So I approached the situation with a positive attitude and tried not to think about her death. But it was tough. I mean, it was tough playing the mother/father role while my wife was sick in the hospital.
“It made me grow a lot, not just as a fighter or anything, but as a man and being able to step up and appreciate my family more.”
Usually Guerrero is among the most amiable of individuals you will ever come across. But the pressure placed on him was palpable.
His manager, Bob Santos said, “You could see he was under a lot of stress. I can?t put myself in his shoes in terms of, if you want to know if your wife?s going to be with you, how much longer she?s going to be there. I?ve never been in that situation. But I?ve been around him long enough to know that was the most stressed out?down?that I?ve seen him.”
The decision to walk away from the Katsidis fight was not an easy one. It was only after some internal deliberation that the move was made to postpone that bout.
“He wanted to still fight; he asked me and Shelly (Finkel); he still wanted to go through with that fight and I wanted him to take some time off and really think about it,” said Santos. “We kinda went back and forth; I just thought to myself, ?If he goes through with this fight and if anything was ever to happen to her while he was getting ready for this fight, I don?t think he would ever have forgave himself.? But after pausing on it, looking at the situation, then he finally- in my opinion- came to his senses and said, ?OK, you?re right; let?s go ahead and stop the fight. Let me take care of her.? I think one thing that makes world champions or any athletes, at any high level, I think a guy always thinks they?re going to come through. I think he was looking at her like, ?Oh, there?s a way she?s going to come through.? I think when he really thought about it and really looked at her, I gotta tell you, when I saw her, I didn?t think she was going to make it.”
But within time, she got off the canvas.
“Towards the end of March, you started seeing more progress and her blood counts starting to build and talking to her doctors and they?re saying, ?Hey, it?s taking good so far but we got to really monitor it and make sure we stay on it because it can slip on the drop of a dime.? So it was one of those things where it was a day-by-day thing,” said Guerrero, who enjoys an unusually tight relationship with his wife, even by the standards of a married couple.
“I don?t think you could have any tighter relationship from the vantage point of that?s the only girl he?s ever dated. That?s the only girl I know of he?s ever kissed,” Santos pointed out. “Not just a high school sweetheart, he had started talking to her since junior high and they lived right around the corner from each other, probably not even three, four blocks of each other. Even when I got around him, he didn?t have very many friends. So that was pretty much his best friend at the time, which is unusual because when they have a high school girlfriend, they still have their good buddies and so on. He spent the majority of his time, when he wasn?t training or at school, with her.”
Now, Guerrero is of clear mind to get back to prizefighting.
“Oh, yeah,” he said, excitedly, “it?s been a monkey on the family?s back for a long time and we got it off now. It?s time to take care of business and be able to focus on just fighting.” In the past, consistency has been a problem for ?The Ghost,? he?s been a fighter whose performances fluctuate between spectacular and erratic. But he says he?s at the point in his life when he is ready to deliver at a certain level on a regular basis. “I?ve just done a lot of growing, getting experience, looking at everything in a whole different aspect and appreciating everything more and getting out there and working hard. It?s right there knocking at the door. You?ve got to take advantage of all your opportunities you get and I?m not getting any younger and opportunities are here and you have to take advantage of them.”
The fight this weekend against the crafty Cuban veteran is at 139 pounds but Guerrero says, “I really do want to make that run at the 135-pound championship.”
As he begins the next stage of his career, a familiar face will be there watching him once again.
“I?m excited because I couldn?t go to the last fight,” said Casey. “My doctor gave me the approval to go, so I?m excited to be there and support him.”
PPV
Guerrero-Casamayor is part of an undercard that also features Jorge Linares-Rocky Juarez and Danny Jacobs-Dimitry Pirog before the night?s main event of Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz, a rematch of the 2009 ?Fight of the Year.? I think it?s a pretty good night of boxing but I?ve read with some interest where some think this is a blockbuster pay-per-view card, as if this was ?Revenge: The Rematches 2.0.?
I think it might be more of a testament to just how low the bar has been set by Bob Arum and his pay-per-view undercards, that this is looked upon as some sorta Nirvana.
While I do like this card in general, here are my problems with it…
– When Marquez and Diaz first met, a major part of the storyline was that A) this was on regular, over-the-air ?free? HBO, not pay-per-view and B) instead of the usual casino setting, it was in Diaz?s hometown in a major metropolitan city. I bought into it so much, I decided to fly out to Houston and cover it live from the Toyota Center. And it was a great event with a loud and enthusiastic crowd of around 15,000.
Well, here comes the rematch and A) it?s on pay-per-view and B) it?s back in a casino. Funny how that turned out, huh? Also, while I have no problems with this fight taking place again and think it could be another fun fight, when was the last time a pay-per-view main event had a fight where both boxers are coming off losses? Honestly, this one belonged back on HBO.
– Also, this card features an old, faded Casamayor and the perennially disappointing Juarez. Wouldn?t it have been better- as some other have already suggested- to have Guerrero face Linares? But honestly, these fights are really no different than what Top Rank does in matching their own in-house fighters against each other.
But I guess by today?s standards, this line-up constitutes a loaded undercard.
GOLDEN CEO
I had a chance to catch up to Richard Schaefer on Thursday night at the Club Nokia, where another installment of ?The Fight Night Club? was staged and I asked him about a possible December 11th showdown between Amir Khan and Tim Bradley. He admitted that there were discussions between the two parties.
“Gary [Shaw] sent me an email; he responded back the day after the Bradley fight after he heard those comments from Amir Khan, that Amir was interested in fighting Bradley. He sent me an email to see if that was true. I said I was going to check with Amir next week when I see him in Vegas. As I talked to Gary over the phone, I said, ?Look, I would like to get an idea of what kind of deal structure you would be agreeable to for a fight between Amir and Bradley because I am going to sit down with Amir next week. I would like to discuss with him potential opponents and what the potential deal structures would look like?”
While Bradley is a potential opponent, Schaefer mentioned three other Golden Boy clients that could get the call: the winner of Marquez-Diaz II, Marcos Maidana or Victor Ortiz. You can draw your own conclusions as to where this will go. Shaw has stated to me that if the money is right, Bradley is willing to travel to England to face Khan.
I finally asked Schaefer to clarify, with all the claims that were thrown around this week, were there in fact, negotiations to make a fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather?
His definitive reply?
“I don?t want to talk about it. I just don?t want to talk about it,” said Schaefer, hastily. “The fact is, the fight is not happening right now and so we?ll see what the future will hold.”
I?ll say this for ?The Swiss Banker,? he sure is taking this gag order to heart.
PAC-MARGARITO
It was first reported on Friday by Kevin Iole on Yahoo! Sports that Arum had signed the deal to have ?The Pac-Man? face Antonio Margarito at a venue yet to be decided. You?re hearing the usual (over) reactions from fans and media alike, who, for the most part, are howling in protest. Me? I can?t lie; I?m looking forward to this fight and can?t wait to be there ringside, wherever it is. I like entertaining fights and this will be one, regardless of the outcome. But you have to hope that Arum has the good sense to actually deliver a ?spectacular? undercard this time around (and even then, it may not be enough to sway certain segments of the public).
But Matt ?Swider-Man? had an interesting take on this. He wrote this to me on Sunday morning:
“In regards to Pacquiao Margarito:
The degree to which the fans support the fight or the space in their platform any media member choose to devote to the fight, I?m fine with. Whats fair is fair, and hopefully the fans/media make their choice of this fight in that context.
But these rival promoters shouldn?t be taken with even a grain of salt. For nearly a year, how many times have we heard Gary Shaw say the fight he most wants to do is Angulo v Margarito at Staples. After winning the MIDDLEWEIGHT title, what fight did Lou DiBella say he most wanted for Sergio Martinez in the post fight presser conference? Margarito at Cowboys Stadium. So, its okay for them to have Margarito as their drawing card opponent, but not for Top Rank and Manny Pacquiao?
And ya? know whats really funny, and you know its coming? As soon as they get off their soapboxes railing against Pacquiao, Margarito, and Top Rank, (DiBella on the behalf of Martinez and Berto, Shaw on behalf of Angulo and Sergei D, and Goosen on the behalf of Williams) their immediate next move will be dialing 1-800-TOP-RANK to see about the availablity of Miguel Cotto.”
Can?t say that I disagree much with what he had to say.
FINAL FLURRIES
I?m not kidding; the four-rounder between Oscar Andrade and Ramon Valadez is one of the best fights I?ve seen in 2010. It?s been a great year for four-round fights…Guerrero is now the latest athlete to have consulted with Victor Conte and his using his supplements and his IHT methods…I thought Craig McEwan did just enough to sneak past Danny Perez but, again, his conditioning (or lack thereof) failed him in the last stages of this fight…Schaefer mentioned to me that underneath Shane Mosley-Sergio Mora on September 18th, they are planning on having Victor Ortiz face Vivian Harris and Saul Alvarez take on the resurgent Mathew Hatton…By the way, the more I see ?Canelo,? the way he throws his left hook/uppercut reminds me of Oscar De La Hoya…I?ll admit it; I can?t wait for ?Jersey Shore? to resume on MTV this week…Terrell Owens will land an NFL gig, right?…I think order has been restored in the United States; we are completely ignoring soccer and all the focus is on the start of NFL training camps…I booked my flight for Columbus, Ohio for the weekend of Sept. 11th for the Miami-Ohio St. clash. Now, if I only had tickets…The most recent edition of ?The Main Event? featured promoter Gary Shaw and boxing scribe David Mayo…I can be reached at [email protected] and you can follow me at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing. You can also become a Facebook fan of Maxboxing at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing.
