Photo: Vincent Ethier – Christopher Guerrero (10-0, 5 KOs), on the right, during his last outing against the tough Sergio ‘Cheko’ Herrera (7-4, 4 KOs).
Christopher Guerrero will box for the first time since mid-January, on May 25. Four months don’t change the world, but between Quebec and Shawinigan, the Montrealer promises a world of difference. The most important one is that he will be ‘himself” again against the American Kenny Larson.
‘It was a long training camp. I had a tear in my right biceps in my last fight, so we took the time to get back to 100%, but here we are,’ says the Quebec athlete nicknamed ‘Machine Gun’.
Now able to perform at 100%, the Montrealer nevertheless refuses to blame his biceps for his last performance. Rather, figuratively speaking, he puts it on his shoulders, determined to prove that he can ‘do much better.’
Get it right
No one shouted – or even thought – out loud that the 23-year-old athlete looked too bad on January 13. Even while suffering from an injury, he won a deserved unanimous decision of 8 rounds against the Mexican ‘Cheko’ Herrera.
Many even thought that Guerrero, who had never gone beyond the 6th round, would learn from this experience.
The harshest criticism therefore came from himself.
‘I didn’t like my performance at all. It’s true that I wasn’t 100%, but being honest with myself, I realized that I hadn’t put the odds in my favor to be so,’ he confessed, speaking of a lack of rigor in his diet having who affected him at weigh in… and then in the fight…
Lesson learned
‘You can’t cheat. If you cheat the game, you will always pay for it,’ says the Canadian athlete with Italian-Mexican heritage.
Still, everything is not all gray.
‘I still boxed 8 rounds and clearly won by being what? 40%? We weren’t satisfied and that’s in the past, but imagine what I can do while being at 100.’
On May 25, in Mauricie, imagination will no longer be necessary.
So for this fight, he promises both to come back ‘improved’, while “returning” to the athlete who had obtained 5 knockouts in the 5 fights preceding that of the Videotron Center.
“It’s not just about having knockouts, it’s about boxing that I can do it… to the height of my skills,” he explains, having accustomed boxing fans to to combinations of four, five and sometimes even six moves.
No witchcraft
Even at the weigh in, ‘Machine Gun’ will have the chance to prove himself with a fight scheduled at 148 pounds. If respected, this will be the bottom where he has fought until now. And then, the weight dropping is also a sign that things are progressing. This will already be his 3rd fight scheduled for 8 rounds and soon, the 10 rounds and minor titles will be contested at 147 pounds.
To dream of all that, he will first have to defeat Kenny Larson (7-1-1, 5 KOs). The 34-year-old will come from Salem, Massachusetts. But even though the American comes from the town of witch hunts, there is no great witchcraft in his boxing according to Guerrero.
“I saw his last fight on YouTube, he lost a 10 round split decision (to undefeated prospect Denzel Whitley). He’s a guy who likes to fight, who likes to throw punches… I should especially watch myself, but it’s clear that I see flaws to exploit.
Back home
The craze for local fights is exploding like inflation in 2024. We are thinking of Ramirez-Ziyatdinov, Butler-Rolls, the very polarizing Bazinyan-Phinn and the possible Butler-Volny. We even had a surprise call out from Avery Martin Duval to Thomas Chabot on May 2. It’s not new, but Guerrero also wants to participate in the phenomenon.
Unfortunately, it takes two to tango.
“I’ve already said it publicly, whether it’s Menoche, Bouchard or Poulin… but at the end of the day these guys just don’t want that smoke,” he says, broadening his horizons further, in the neighboring province.
“I think I have two or three 8-round fights left. But possibly, in Ontario, there’s this guy Josh Wagner, who is 18-0, with whom I could have a good fight, so we’ll see,” Guerrero told.
‘Cause first, ‘let’s see’ on May 25 against Larson.
