Robert Guerrero comes away with a decision to win the Interim WBC Title

In the main event of the evening on Showtime Championship Boxing from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California this past Saturday night, Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (30-1-1, 18 KO’s) of nearby Gilroy would emerge triumphant, garnering a unanimous decision verdict over hard punching and now formerly undefeated Selcuk “Mini-Tyson” Aydin (23-1, 17 KO’s) of Trabzon, Turkey.

“He hit hard,” said Guerrero. “He never hurt me anytime. He’s got some punching power. He’s one of the hardest punching guys in the division. He can throw a bomb and he landed some bombs on me. I just shrugged them off and kept going.”

With the final tallies reading 117-111 and 116-112 twice, all in favor of the hometown fighter, not only would “The Ghost” lay claim to the vacant WBC interim welterweight title after twelve hard fought rounds, but along with it he’s next in line to face pound-for-pound prizefighter Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. should Floyd choose to remain at the 147 pound weight limit.

Not only is this particular win over the WBC #1 rated contender quite remarkable considering that Robert was out of action for a year or so due to a torn rotator cuff, but being that this was his first foray within the welterweight ranks without the benefit of having previously fought at junior welterweight makes this showing just as noteworthy if not more so.

And whereas it’s obvious the judges widely found it in favor of the former three-division champion Guerrero by virtue of his out-throwing and out-landing his Turkish adversary by a sizeable margin, one could have just as easily been persuaded to award Selcuk a round or two more to make it that much closer. This scenario is based on the fact that the visiting fighter threw the more telling blows during the course of action, as opposed to that of Guerrero’ less effective but more plentiful blows of which Aydin for the most part seemed to walk through.

No doubt that Selcuk was the visibly stronger as well as more intense looking fighter who was rarely if ever deterred in his mission, but in giving credit where it’s due, Robert would not only for the most part efficiently smother his opponent’s attack when not busy with his hands, but in weathering the storm he would dig down deep to immediately retaliate in the face of just about every onslaught launched by his foe, in effect finishing off many an exchange.

Not Robert’s best all around performance to date, but nevertheless a most important win over the biggest and strongest opponent he has yet faced in one Selcuk Aydin. Stated Guerrero post fight, “this belt is for my little boy Robert Jr. He always asked me when I was going to win the green belt, this is for him. All of the support from my local fans and family made me feel great.”

And in referring to one family member in particular, a huge inspiration and fighter in her own right who through the assistance of a bone-marrow transplant would survive cancer to watch her husband on this most eventful occasion, “The Ghost” would reveal his thoughts regarding soul-mate Casey.  “Casey made me want to fight harder and reach my goals.”

And with what are well known to have been some pre-fight rumblings occurring between Guerrero and Aydin , the visiting Turk upon his decision loss would show more than mutual respect, as he was  downright humble. “Robert is a very experienced fighter and he taught me a little bit about boxing. I really couldn’t do what I wanted. I only fought with my desire, but there’s no excuse, I lost the fight. Robert enjoy it [the interim title]. Perhaps we’ll see each other again, I don’t know.”

In finality, Robert would put things in to perspective. “I’m back, I’m the welterweight champ. I wanted to fight the best and that’s why I fought Selcuk. Nobody wanted to fight him in this division, but I came in and took care of business. I believe in my talent and I boxed and used my skills. But I did have a little bit of ring-rust. Floyd if you want your belt here it is, come and get it.”

In the co-main event of the evening, undefeated “Showtime” Shawn Porter (20-0, 14 KO’s) of Cleveland, Ohio, cut and bleeding at different times from cuts over both the left and right eye courtesy of two separate head butts, would carve out a unanimous decision verdict in his ten round scrap with two-time world title challenger Alfonso Gomez (23-6-2, 12 KO’s) of Contender Series notoriety. The final scores handed in would read 98-92, 97-93, and 96-94, all in favor of Porter who would in effect lay claim to the vacant NABO welterweight title.

With Gomez quite competitive early on in what was a give and take battle, the Mexican fighter would visibly slow by the midway point so that Porter would put his punches together to outland his adversary to both body and head at a rock-steady pace. In effect, Porter, who was neither deterred by Gomez first half effort, nor the disposition of a possibly fight ending deep cut over his left eye, would clearly outwork the lengthier Gomez over the second half to separate himself as the better man on this night.

Prior to the Showtime Championship Boxing principal fights taking place, a so-called off camera swing bout would see two elusive and evenly matched junior featherweights go at it. In the end in what appeared to be a much closer bout, Manuel Avila of Fairfield, California (8-0-, 2 KO’s) would get the nod on all three judges scorecards, 40-36, and 39-37 twice for a unanimous decision verdict over Raymond Chacon of Northridge, California who falls to even at 4-4.

Undefeated Hugo Centeno of Oxnard, California with the assistance of a shorter less than determined opponent in Ayi Bruce fighting out of Albany, New York, would maintain his distance to outland and outscore the New Yorker in just about every round in this sometimes lackluster affair. The final scores, all in favor of Centeno, would read 79-73, and 80-72 twice so that Hugo maintains his unblemished record while Bruce falls to 14-8 with 8 KO’s.

In a light heavyweight bout with international flavor, undefeated British Common Wealth super middleweight champion George Groves (15-0, 12 KO’s) of Hammersmith, England would drop the hammer to gain the stoppage over the game but outgunned journeyman Francisco Sierra (24-6-1, 22 KO’s) of Tepic, Mexico. The time came at 2:15 of the sixth round after a cut and bloodied Groves outworked and out-countered his foe all night long, saving his biggest counters for the sixth frame. In that round the Brit would land a huge combination, finishing with a left hook that would deposit the Mexican fighter on the canvass. Sierra would rise to his feet only to run into several more powerful shots in the form of right hands so that the referee in charge by this time had seen enough.

In a scheduled six-rounder between super middleweights, Paul Mendez of Delano, California would defeat Leshon Simms of Inglewood, California, outworking and out-landing by far the defensive minded backpedaling Simms in all but the final round where the Inglewood resident decided to put up a bit of a fight. But apparently even that wasn’t enough for Leshon to win the  sixth frame, as he falls short on all three judges scorecards by the identical tally of 59–55. Mendez improves to 8-2-1 with 2 KO’s while Simms falls to 5-11 with 3 KO’s.

Heavyweights would start the action off at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, or at least one heavyweight would. It was all hometown fighter Gerald Washington (1-0) who would pound on tentative and unwilling opponent Blue Delong of Glendale, Arizona (0-4) in the first and only round of a scheduled four. With pulverizing right hands, Washington would get credit for one official knockdown in his pro debut, to subsequently see a winless Delong crumple to the canvass of his own accord numerous times in a blatant attempt to get out of the fight. That exit strategy would come to fruition at the 2:36 mark of round 1 as the referee would have no more of it.