By Radio Rahim
StubHub Center, Carson, California - Former champion Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero (33-3, 18KOs) was forced to stage a late rally in the second half of ten round bout with heavy underdog Aron Martinez (19-4, 4KOs). The fight headlined an afternoon Premier Boxing Champions event on NBC.
Martinez took advantage of Guerrero's slow start and was outbrawling the veteran on the inside. In the fourth round, a series of punches sent Guerrero down.
Guerrero admits to making the fight much tougher for himself by standing right in front of Martinez and slugging away. He put together enough points together to walk away with a ten round split decision victory off of scores of 95-94 and 97-92, with the third judge giving 95-94 to Martinez.
"I made the fight harder than it was, standing there and exchanging with him. He used his head a lot but I did what I had to do to get the win. Once I got on my game and started boxing the game changed," Guerrero told BoxingScene.com.
"Once I was working behind my jab, that changed everything. Once I started with the jab and started turning him, he didn't know what to do. He was laying back like a snake and looking for one big shot. That's what my team wanted me to do and I should have started that from the beginning."
Guerrero admits he got caught with a good shot when Martinez put him down, but says his hands went down, leaving him wide open, when Martinez hit him low.
"He hit me with a low blow first, and then he hit me with a good shot there. He hit me with an uppercut when I was already going down. You just have to deal with the situation. When you get scored a knockdown, you're already two points down so you've gotta start making it happen," Guerrero said.