For boxing fans, the next big fight out there will be when former featherweight and former junior lightweight world champion Robert ?The Ghost? Guerrero 29-1 (18 KO?s) of Gilroy, California moves up in weight to take on the number 3 ranked junior welterweight in the world, Argentinian slugger Marcos ?El Chino? Maidana 30-2 (27 KO?s) fighting out of Santa Fe, Argentina. In what is expected to be an epic throw back type battle set to air on HBO?s Boxing After Dark (BAD) from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California on Saturday August 27th, nothing less than an all out war will take place when the paths of these two warriors cross, with the winner of this confrontation moving on to bigger and better things in the world of pugilism. Robert showed poise and good patience in allowing me the privilege to conduct at length interview with him back in July at the initial press conference which would launch this cross roads bout. Here is what Robert had to say.
NB: Hello Robert, and thanks for taking the time out for this interview. First off, how is family life with your wife and children. Is that a stable situation nowadays?
RG: Oh yeah. Everything is going great. The wife has been cancer free for a year and a half now. It makes everything easier to get ready for fights.
NB: You only had 2 bouts in 07 and 1 bout in 08 due to dealing with your wife?s illness, but in 2009 and 10 you got busy. Your last 3 fights were against Joel Casamayor, Vicente Escobedo, and then Michael Katsidis this past April, all world class opponents whom you proceeded to take apart, with the Katsidis bout seemingly your best career performance to date. Now your moving up to a weight class in which you have not yet fought to take on Marcos Maidana, arguably the hardest puncher in the junior welterweight division. Will we ever see Robert Guerrero in another tune up type fight, or do you feel you?re on a mission here to perhaps make up for some time you were not able to fully devote to your boxing career?
RG: Yeah, kind of like on a mission. You know it?s not making up time that was lost. I want to fight the best out there and Marcos Maidana is one of the best. I am one of those throw back fighters where you want to fight whoever, whenever. I want nothing but the best fighters. I think that?s what the fans deserve.
NB: Anyone that is familiar with you as a fighter knows that you can box from the outside as well as bang on the inside, the exact manner in which you dismantled the hard charging Michael Katsidis. In looking as sharp as ever from start to finish, how much of that performance do you attribute to your family situation being more manageable, and what other factors if any do you feel have contributed to your current ring success against such high level competition?
RG: You know, not having a lot of things on my mind like my wife being sick. Her being able to function like normal is a huge weight of my shoulders. Being out to training camps also. You know, while my wife was sick I wasn?t able to get out to any training camps or anything. Now for the Michael Katsidis fight I was able to get out to Las Vegas and get ready for the fight the way I should be prepared, and everybody had seen the difference in being in a training camp and not being in a training camp. It does make a big difference when your out there just training and preparing for fights.
