Ghost wins title in Houston
August 22nd, 2009.
By Michael Campbell.
Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero, right, delivers a jab to opponent Malcolm Klassen on Saturday night at the Toyota Center in Houston. Guerrero defeated Klassen by unanimous decision to claim the IBF junior lightweight title.
Photo by: Ed Garza
Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero defeated Malcolm Klassen by unanimous decision on Saturday night in Houston to claim the IBF junior lightweight title.
Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero, right, won by unanimous decision on Saturday night in Houston, 117-111, 116-112, 116-113.
Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero won the IBF junior lightweight belt after he defeated Malcolm Klassen by unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Toyota Center in Houston.
HOUSTON — Two-time featherweight world champion Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (25-1-1, 17 KOs) returned to the state of Texas where he has family connections to fight for another world title, this one his first in the junior lightweight division. The IBF champion Malcolm Klassen (24-5-2, 14 KOs) brought the title he had won four months ago in his home country of South Africa and put it on the line versus Gilroy’s Guerrero.
Before a crowd of 7,679 at the Toyota Center in downtown Houston, Guerrero went through one of the toughest challenges of his career to add another championship title to his trophy case by a close but unanimous decision.
“I feel really great to now be a three-time champion in two weight divisions,” Guerrero exclaimed afterwards. “I owe it all to God, who makes all things possible.”
In the early part of the bout Guerrero’s game plan was very effective. He tried to constantly keep turning his much smaller opponent while landing his long-range punches at differing angles. His reach was superior and was landing his punches exactly where he wanted them as he established the upper hand.
The fight started to take a turn in the middle rounds as Klassen began to control the action and showed a great amount of strength while landing solid punches. The South African’s confidence soared as he tried to take command of the bout.
“In the middle rounds I wanted to really work his body more to slow him down,” Guerrero said afterwards. “He was really in incredible shape.”
For a few rounds the shorter orthodox boxer was landing straight right hands on the taller southpaw fighter.
“The shorter guy will have faster hands so I had to use my height and keep him at bay with my jab,” Guerrero said.
Klassen stalked and landed flush punches on the Ghost’s face, swelling both eyes and opening a cut over his left eyebrow that streamed blood down his face for the remainder of the bout.
“The cut didn’t bother me at all,” Guerrero said. “I have a great cutman who did a great job and it gave me no problems.”
With the fight close entering the final rounds, Guerrero had to dig deep and overcome any momentum that Klassen had garnered. All three judges scored the final two rounds for the Ghost, which swung the final scores comfortably into his favor.
The cut and a well-conditioned foe weren’t all the adversity that the Ghost had to overcome.
“I hurt my left hand somewhere in the middle of the fight and to go the rest of the way using mostly one hand,” he said. ” I’m not sure if it’s broken, but it’s really sore right now.”
Ghost attributed his victory to a great training camp.
“I went to Big Bear and had tremendous sparring with ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley,” he said. It was the first time Guerrero went away from home to prepare for a fight and remove the distractions of everyday life and concentrate fully on his preparations.
Gilroy’s pride is a champ once again.
In other action on the HBO “Boxing After Dark” telecast, Houston’s Juan Diaz battered New Yorker Paulie Malignaggi in front of a vocal hometown crowd to capture the NABO junior welterweight title. Malignaggi began his complaints of biasness from Diaz’s hometown officials, promoter, and anything else he could think of, a full week ahead of the fight, seemingly already expecting defeat.
The complaining continued throughout the bout as Paulie mocked the crowd who showered him with boos. The judges awarded Diaz a unanimous decision with scores of 118-110, 116-112 and 115-113.
Fast-rising prospect from Brooklyn, NY, Danny Jacobs collected his first regional belt in winning the NABO middleweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Ishe Smith from Las Vegas. Smith is a veteran of season one of the popular reality TV series “The Contender,” and Saturday was the first tough test for the young New York native.
In a very entertaining and crowd pleasing bout, Jacobs proved to be too big and strong for the smaller opponent and prevailed by accurate scores of 96-93 on two judges’ scorecards and a very inaccurate 100-89 score on the third scorecard.
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