Fernando Guerrero’s American Dream Continues
By Thomas Gerbasi (photo by FightWireImages)
It’s another fight, another phone number for Fernando Guerrero, but it’s a small price to pay when you’re the most popular young man in Salisbury, Maryland.
“Who told you that,” laughs the affable middleweight prospect, who headlines tonight’s ShoBox event at the Wicomico Civic Center against Michael Walker in his adopted hometown. It’s his fifth pro bout in the friendly confines of home, and in one of boxing’s great stories of recent years, he’s become like Joe Mesi in Buffalo, Cory Spinks in St. Louis, or Paul Spadafora in Pittsburgh – a local kid who can pack local venues and make people from every walk of life care about the sport again – hence the necessity to switch phone numbers that get blown up by ticket requests before every bout.
“I need to change my phone number every time I fight,” he smiles, “and it was almost like that in the amateurs too. We have like 23,000 people here, so whoever does it big out here, they tend to support them.”
The city of Salisbury has apparently hitched itself on to a winner. Unbeaten in 17 pro bouts, and with an impressive amateur background, the 23-year old southpaw can do it all in the ring. And though he’s still raw in spots and improving, odds are that he’s going to be making some noise on the world scene by 2011.
He’s also a helluva salesman. When asked what fans might expect tonight, he doesn’t skip a beat, saying, “If you like action, if you like the loud crowd, if you like somebody who is fighting just because he wants to fight and nothing else, who is all about the sport and respect and everything like that, then this is gonna be a great show.”
But what makes Guerrero’s story even better is that he is being embraced by his community not just for knocking people out, but for taking an active role in the area by speaking to kids at local schools and living a life that makes him a role model to them.
“Coming from a poor country, the Dominican Republic, I always had little, but in my heart I was always rich,” said Guerrero, who moved to the United States when he was eight years old. “The thing is that once I came to America, I noticed that I was really dirt poor. (Laughs) But I came up from a good family, and they always told me to respect women, listen to your elders and stuff like that. So it’s very important to me to be a positive role model because I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I don’t want to do something wrong and tell the kids to do something else while I’m doing it wrong. It actually pushes me to be a better person as well.”
Yes, he’s only 23. But as he explains it, “coming from a different country, usually the discipline is different. I was always like that and since I was 14 I was mature.”
By 16, he was making noise on the amateur circuit, and by the time he decided to turn pro in December of 2007, he had won a National AAU championship and a Silver medal in the National Golden Gloves.
As a pro, there have been few, if any, hiccups in his rise up the ranks. A close majority decision win over veteran Ossie Duran in October of 2009 raised some eyebrows, but when he halted 19-1-2 Jessie Nicklow last December, the world of Guerrero was back on its axis. And truth be told, tough fights like the one against Duran build character in a young fighter, and are essential in this honeymoon period. Walker, who has been in with the likes of Daniel Jacobs, Antwun Echols, David Lopez and Dante Craig, should be a similar test for him.
“He’s a guy who has been on Pay-Per-View, who’s had good fights and has been tested,” said Guerrero. “It’s what I need. He’s a fence that I need to jump over.”
Tonight’s fight is Guerrero’s second on ShoBox, and he has also been seen on ESPN and on the undercards of Berto-Rodriguez and Taylor-Lacy, so at this point, there are no worries about freezing in the spotlight as the headliner in his hometown. In fact, he got a lot of those pre-fight jitters out of his system in the amateur ranks.
“In the amateurs, I fought on some big stages and I didn’t even want to come out,” he laughs.
“But I’m glad that I got that experience. The first fight (in Salisbury in 2008), it was a little bit of pressure, I’m not gonna lie. But once we kept doing it, I was like ‘man, this is going really well for me,’ and I just got used to it.”
Strangely enough, the idea of fighting at home came about in casual conversation with manager Hal Chernoff.
“I only had eight fights and I had fought on a lot of undercards – I fought on Berto’s undercard and Jermain Taylor’s undercard. I was talking to my coach and I said ‘I don’t think my fanbase is that great, but I think we could have more people in Salisbury than this.’ Then we did it in Salisbury and it was just phenomenal.”
It could be enough to swell a kid’s head, but Guerrero is humble to a fault, simply saying that the people showing up and packing local venues are “basically my friends.” That circle is growing bigger and bigger with each fight, and his goal is to have it extend back home to the Dominican Republic, a nation whose boxing history pales in comparison to that of its Caribbean neighbor Puerto Rico.
“I think that Lennox Lewis hit on the right point,” said Guerrero, referring to a recent HBO broadcast featuring one of the DR’s few champions, Joan Guzman. “He said that the Dominican Republic has not had a hero for so long – it hasn’t had a Muhammad Ali or a Tito Trinidad or Oscar De La Hoya - so until they have that, the boxers are never gonna be successful in their careers because they haven’t had anybody to base it on. That’s what I want to be. When you say the Dominican Republic, I want people to think of me like a Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya, or Muhammad Ali. That’s what we need – one hero.”
Well, since Guerrero deals with pressure so well, why not add a little more and say that he may just have the right stuff to become that hero for budding Dominican fighters. That, of course, goes beyond what happens in the ring. It means working hard, setting an example, being accessible, and being professional (like making weight, something Guzman hasn’t apparently gotten down yet). Guerrero has all that stuff down already, though he admits that he hasn’t reached Salisbury-esque levels of popularity back home.
“Some people said they watched me on ESPN and Showtime and stuff like that, but I’m not there yet. I think that more fights like this on Showtime will help, and the (Joan) Guzman people knew all about me and that was kind of exciting.”
Yet despite all these lofty aspirations, Guerrero is content to take his time and do things the right way. He still only has 17 fights, and he knows it, despite also being 23 and eager to test the waters against the bigger names in and around his division.
“You just gotta listen,” he said. “I’ve always been the little kid, I’ve always been the little brother, and I’ve always wanted to just rush into things. But I’ve always been a good listener too. Even though I may say something, I still have my common sense and I remember what my parents told me about listening to the elders, because they know more. So even though I want to fight a (Kelly) Pavlik or a (Floyd) Mayweather and say ‘man, I’m ready now,’ I know that it’s all about patience and timing.”
Just like life.