Robert Guerrero jumped two weight classes and took his aggressiveness with him. He averaged 80 punches thrown per round and outlanded Selcuk Aydin in eight of twelve rounds. Aydin landed 42% of his power shots.
HP Pavilion, San Jose, California - Robert Guerrero (30-1-1 18KOs), moving up by two weight divisions, won a twelve round unanimous decision over previously undefeated Selcuk Aydin (23-1, 17KOs) to capture the WBC interim-welterweight title. The scores were 117-111, 116-112 and 116-112
SAN JOSE, Calif. – Selcuk Aydin is making no excuses about his twelve round unanimous decision loss to Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero. Before Guerrero's hometown crowd at HP Pavilion, Aydin (23-1, 17 KO’s) got outboxed in the first half of the fight but came back strong in the later rounds, with Guerrero (30-1-1, 18 KO’s) getting tired. The judges saw it 117-11 and 116-112 (twice).
SAN JOSE, Calif. – Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero won the World Boxing Council (WBC) Interim Welterweight World Championship with a unanimous decision victory over previously undefeated Selcuk Aydin in front of a hometown crowd at HP Pavilion in San Jose.
By Cliff Rold - Returning from a lengthy layoff due to a shoulder injury, 29-year old former Featherweight and Jr. Lightweight titlist Robert Guerrero (30-1-1, 18 KO) f Gilroy, California, stepped up two classes from his last bout at Lightweight to score a wide but competitive unanimous decision against big punching 28-year old Turkish Welterweight Selcuk Aydin (23-1, 17 KO) of Hamburg, Germany on Saturday night at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. Guerrero added an interim Welterweight title to his trophy case, a distinction he also picked up at Lightweight. Both men came in under the 147 lb. limit, Guerrero at 145 ¾ and Aydin at 146 ½. The referee was Dan Stell. After a tempestuous showdown at the weigh-in, both men were staring daggers into each other as they waited for the opening bell. Aydin, as expected, as looking for his right hand while Guerrero was using his speed and straighter shots to score points. Aydin got in with a right early in the final minute and Guerrero took it well. Aydin took a sharp uppercut just as well. Another Aydin right at the thirty-second mark ended in an awkward tie-up. At the bell, Aydin attempted to touch gloves. Guerrero was having none of it.
Heavyweight Gerald Washington (1-0, 1KO) made his pro debut with a first round stoppage of overwhelmed Blue Delong (0-4). Delong went down numerous times, but the referee only ruled one of those falls as an actual knockdown. The referee had seen enough after the final knockdown and waved off the mismatch. Washington is managed by Al Haymon.
Robert Guerrero, making his welterweight debut, threw 20 more punches per round against much tougher opposition than Selcuk Aydin. Guerrero also hits harder, while landing 51% of his power punches.
Robert Guerrero can only hope his return from a 15-month layoff goes as well as the Oakland A’s comeback against the Yankees on Sunday, when Guerrero’s surgically repaired left shoulder looked strong as he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Guerrero acknowledges his fight against Selcuk Aydin will be anything but easy, but the former featherweight, super featherweight and lightweight title-holder is confident his shoulder won’t hinder him in any way Saturday night at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. In fact, surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff and nearly four months of intense physical therapy have made his shoulder stronger than it was before he suffered the tear while training for an ill-fated fight against Marcos Maidana last summer.
There is no debating the fact that Robert Guerrero is among the more gifted, and certainly more under-rated, fighters currently plying their trade today. 'The Ghost' is 29-1 (18) and has claimed major belts at feather, super-feather and lightweight in a career that began back in 2001. However later tonight he takes a real gamble as he goes in with unbeaten Turk Selcuk Aydin for the interim WBC light-welterweight title.
They were standing fist-to-fist and face-to-face, separated by a mere wide-screen projector and thousands of miles. In May, Selcuk Aydin and Gilroy, Calif. native Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero exchanged not-so-friendly fire via Skype during the Silicon Valley-based press conference heralding their upcoming bout. The latter, rehabilitating from a shoulder injury, professed his intent to deliver a strong performance against his visiting opponent; Aydin, who hails from Trabzon, Turkey, donned a Ghostbusters t-shirt and, with jocular menace, promised to inflict more significant bodily damage.