By Steve Kim 

On February 29th IBF featherweight champion Robert Guerrero impressively halted Jason Litzau in Lemoore, California in eight rounds. With the win, the young man who hails from nearby Gilroy had seemingly found his groove in the ring after some earlier inconsistencies, and 'The Ghost', as he is called, was coming into his own as one of the sport’s brightest young champions.
 
After losing the IBF title to Orlando Salido (who later flunked his post-fight urinalysis and was thus stripped of the title) in November of 2006, Guerrero - under the guidance of his father in the corner - had now put together three solid knockout victories, and along the way had re-captured the IBF crown he originally won against Erik Aiken in September of 2006. He had even played to a standing room only crowd at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino in his dismantling of Litzau.
 
It seemed as though they had all the momentum in the world.
 
So why are we into July and there are no sightings of 'The Ghost'?
 
"Ask Shelly," said the normally talkative promoter, Dan Goossen, who developed Guerrero from a fledgling prospect into a world champion. 'Shelly' would be one Shelly Finkel, who co-manages Guerrero alongside Bob Santos.
 
And why ask him?

"Ask Shelly," again is Goossen’s retort.
 
And that's because Guerrero filed for arbitration to free himself from his promotional pact with Goossen-Tutor. OK, why did he do that?

"Ask Shelly," was once again the reply. "Look, I don't have any answers, really I don't. I've been with Robert for awhile; hey, I'm speechless and that's a tough situation for me."
 
So that's exactly what we did - ask Shelly.
 
"There's hearings in three weeks and Robert Guerrero wanted to have an arbitration because he believes his contract is void," said the influential manager to Maxboxing. Asked why they wanted to void the contract, he would simply state, "I can't get into that."

But he did confirm that there were disagreements in the monies received and the amount of fights under their contract.
 
A well-informed source tells Maxboxing that Guerrero and Finkel are claiming violations in the Muhammad Ali Act and that they were disgruntled in having to face Spend Abazi in Denmark - on a show that was not promoted by Goossen-Tutor - to win back the IBF title in February of 2007. Also, there is a dispute as to whether Guerrero was injured during the course of this contract and therefore his availability to perform.
 
But you could argue that this isn't really Guerrero vs. Goossen-Tutor but a continuing conflict between Goossen and Finkel, who haven't always seen things eye-to-eye. In fact, this isn't the first time that Guerrero has filed for arbitration against his promoter since Finkel came on board back in 2004. They had a rocky relationship when they were both involved with Mike Tyson, when Goossen was the acting promoter and Finkel the adviser.
 
"I think it's been public knowledge on that," confirmed Goossen. "I just think some people are better suited for management, some better suited for training and some better suited for promotion. But when people try to cross over those lines, usually they end up making a multitude of mistakes, and certainly Shelly and I have had our disagreements with the crossover."
 
Finkel says there is no personal animosity on his side, he says that, "Dan knows that he didn't have a contract with Tony Thompson (who faces Wladimir Klitschko, a client of Finkel, on July 12th) and I dealt with him directly and Dan believes I had an issue. I wanted the kid to work a couple of things out and he said no."
 
But beyond that there seems to be a trend where Finkel is acting as the Harriet Tubman and creating an underground railroad for all his clients to make their way to Golden Boy Promotions. Many insiders believe that it's a foregone conclusion that Guerrero will end up at GBP, as they seem to be Finkel's promoter of the moment.
 
"That's not true though," he claims. "It's true that lately, I have, but people seem to forget that for awhile I was pretty much working with Arum, we had that fall out over Pacquiao. Before that I was working with Gary Shaw and before that people felt that I was exclusive - and I owned - Main Events. I've always felt comfortable working more preferably with one person, whoever that person is at that time."
 
Finkel adds, "I gotta tell you, the Guerrero situation, when it does come out, at the end it'll be one of two people in my head, who I have not spoken to."
 
Where Finkel takes his clients - whether to ten different promoters or one - is his prerogative, but what's alarming is that in recent months he has created trap doors of escape for fighters that had existing contracts with other promoters. Victor Ortiz, who was under the Top Rank banner, would suddenly file bankruptcy after affiliating himself with Finkel and would sign a deal with Golden Boy shortly thereafter. Guerrero is now under his second arbitration with Goossen-Tutor. It's widely believed that the first time around he would be scooped up by Shaw, who was working closely with Finkel at the time.
 
Initiating these legal proceedings on behalf of Guerrero is attorney Bruce Zadarauskas, who just happens to have represented Finkel for years. Which begs the question, just who is really disgruntled with Goossen-Tutor?

"He (Dan) believes I told the kid to leave him or had something to do with it and he doesn't want to believe what reality is," said Finkel, who added, "Robert has said to me that he would rather finish this arbitration and not fight then fight under these conditions and the way he was."
 
Then in a recent story on ESPN.com penned by Thomas Hauser, it seemed that Finkel was pushing for Lamont and Anthony Peterson to forego a superior deal with Top Rank to sign with Golden Boy. Eventually, against the wishes of Finkel, the Peterson brothers and their manager/trainer Barry Hunter made the decision to go with Top Rank. That case now is under arbitration.
 
So the question has to be asked, is Finkel acting in the best fiduciary interest of his clients, or as an agent for a single promoter? When you ask Goossen if this is all a guise for Guerrero to be led to Golden Boy, all he'll say (again) is, "Ask Shelly."
 
The arbitration hearing is set for July 25th according to Finkel, but it's not clear when Guerrero will be fighting inside of an actual boxing ring.
 
"This fall, hopefully," says Finkel, who added, "There's no deal with anyone or any discussions. So if he's free in August, I have to talk to people about where he would go in the fall."
 
The buzz from Guerrero's last outing is long forgotten. In fact, when he comes back it won’t even be as a world titlist, as he abdicated his IBF title and moved up to 130 pounds. Now Guerrero, who has fought just three times since the beginning of 2007, will sit out for at least a few more months. Precious time is being squandered on a career that has a limited life span.