Selcuk Aydin has already made his biggest mistake against Robert Guerrero, whom the Turk will be fighting Saturday in San Jose at 7 p.m. (airing on Showtime at 10 p.m.). He thinks Guerrero is smaller than he is.
?People still don?t seem to realize your bigger body isn?t that recent a phenomenon,? I exclaimed to Guerrero as we waited for a press function to begin Wednesday at HP Pavilion (the Shark Tank), where Saturday?s card will take place.
?Just like the guy I?m fighting,? Guerrero retorted.
Aydin, a heavy underdog in only his second fight in the United States, feels Guerrero?s speed and superior length will pose a challenge, but this ?mini-Tyson? doesn?t believe Guerrero has carried his power to welterweight. Nor has Guerrero tasted a welterweight?s power. ?We know our opponent and what he can do,? Aydin said, presumably referring to Guerrero?s long-established defensive prowess, ?but we know even better what we can do.?
So Aydin (23-0, 19 knockouts) is not reckoning with Guerrero (29-1-1, 18 knockouts) as a full-fledged welterweight. And neither are most boxing observers (surprisingly, even ESPN?s Dan Rafael), who know only that Guerrero, ?the Ghost? from Gilroy, made his mark as an unusually tall (nearly 5-foot-9) 126-pound champion, was a 130-pounder as recently as 2009, fought at 140 only once and has fought at 147 never.
Guerrero, however long he?s been beefed up, characterized this fight as a ?good test? and stressed that the welterweight aspect cannot be taken lightly. And that is the crux of this match, with the ?WBC interim world welterweight? title on the line.
Guerrero has been pretty much this big since at least the spring of 2010, when he made the move to lightweight and immediately seemed larger than his opponents. It?s amazing how little has changed except the dates and weights since April 2010. To wit:
As Robert Guerrero returns to the ring Friday for his first fight in eight months, he does so as a full-fledged lightweight. ?The Ghost? is no longer the skinny matador who last fought as a featherweight in February 2008. And when he gave up his IBF junior lightweight title in February to help his wife endure the aftermath of a bone-marrow transplant, he left the 130-pound division for good. Wife Casey continues to show no new signs of leukemia as she strives to build her new immune system.
This time it has been 15 months since his last fight (and 11 since an injury waylaid his scheduled bout at the Shark Tank against Marcos Maidana in what was scheduled to be his debut at 147). He?s a brawny welterweight who has been walking around at a trim150 pounds for more than three years and has been keeping fit despite Casey?s ordeal, which she has indeed survived.
The more recent hiatus since his impressive lightweight victory over Michael Katsidis in spring 2011, entailed surgery to overhaul the southpaw?s long-ailing left shoulder. The layoff and the cure have made him particularly eager to get back to business Saturday.
?I haven?t been in this kind of shape — ever,? Guerrero said from the podium Wednesday. ?My wife is doing good now, and I?ve put my focus on boxing. Before, you guys only saw 50 percent of me in the ring. Now, I can give it 100 percent.?
Since his ascension to lightweight, 50 percent has resulted in one-sided victories over Katsidis, former lightweight great Juan Casamayor (at junior welterweight a full two years ago!) and lightweight contender Vicente Escobedo.
That?s the Guerrero who figures to be able to evade most of Aydin?s aggression in the first three rounds and make him pay for it with several pot shots. Aydin, bloodied, won?t be accustomed to that sort of adversity, having stopped 17 of his 23 opponents inside three rounds, but he has made it clear he?s the sort of man who will keep coming on. If he does, Guerrero will stop him in the sixth or seventh round.
Guerrero has won world title belts three times, but he has never had a great war on a big stage that would gain him the top-10 pound-for-pound stature his talent perhaps merits. A savage beating of Aydin, especially if Aydin lands a solid punch or two, would be huge, probably leading to the sort of high-profile fight in which Guerrero might be the underdog for a change.
?I want to fight the best fights,? Guerrero concluded. ?With Aydin?s style and my style, it?s time for an explosion.?
