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'The Ghost' willingly bears heavy burden

Robert Guerrero, left, heads for a neutral corner as Martin Honorio struggles to get up after being floored 56 seconds into the first round of their IBF featherweight title bout in Tucson, Arizona, on Nov. 3. PHOTO: AP

Robert Guerrero's world is calm during his dawn training runs in the Diablo Range's rambling foothills. The IBF featherweight champion relishes the daily grind of roadwork amid the faint garlic aroma that always hangs in his hometown's cool air.

When the fighter known as "The Ghost" returns to his nearby home, the calm recedes. The Christmas-New Year's holiday season has been both more frightening and more joyous than anything he's ever known.

Casey Guerrero, his wife and the mother of their two children, was diagnosed with leukemia less than two weeks before his bout against Martin Honorio last month.

He spent several nights sleeping on the floor of a hospital room before the fight, and he didn't get to Tucson, Arizona, until the day before the bout. In the nervous moments before heading into an unfriendly ring at a desert casino, his father crystallized his purpose.

"This is what puts your food on the table," Ruben Guerrero told his son. "This is what's going to pay your medical bills for your wife."

After the Arizona fans jeered his name, the Ghost knocked out Honorio 56 seconds into the first round with one stunning punch.

He's spent the eight weeks since his victory in a whirlwind of motion and emotion. When he's not shuttling Casey to doctors' visits in the San Francisco area, he's practicing the finer points of changing diapers or putting a two-year-old girl's hair into a ponytail -- and he never lets himself get out of shape.

"I've got a lot of responsibility on me," Guerrero says. "A lot of people are counting on me to do my best at everything I need to do, so I don't want to let anybody down. My father, my wife, my children, my team -- everybody is counting on me."

With ample support from his family and in-laws, the 24-year-old champion is juggling his duties as a boxer, a husband, a father, and a brother to another aspiring fighter with dreams of glory.

So far, Guerrero hasn't dropped anything.

"He's a tough kid, but nobody would know how to react to that," says Ruben Guerrero, who's also his son's trainer. "It's a big shock when they tell you your wife has cancer, and they don't know if she's going to die. It was tough for everybody to deal with."

His father suspects the third of his four fighting sons was particularly well equipped to handle such a challenge. Aside from his inherited discipline, he seems to be that rare boxer without a grandiose bone in his body.

He doesn't wear jewelry or gaudy clothing, and he still lives in humble Gilroy, venturing away only for training and fights.

"The people around me keep me focused on boxing instead of the other stuff," Guerrero says. "Casey plays a big role in that, and so does my father."

Ruben Guerrero was an amateur champion in both Texas and San Francisco before raising his family in Gilroy. Though Robert has worked with respected trainers Freddie Roach and Joe Goossen, his father is still in charge.

Guerrero won the IBF title in September last year when he beat Eric Aiken. Guerrero lost the belt to Orlando Salido two months later -- but Salido tested positive for doping, voiding the result.

When Casey gave birth to their son, Robert, just 10 months ago, Guerrero was in Denmark reclaiming the vacant title by beating Spend Abazi.

Casey and Robert have been together since their early days at Gilroy High School.

"I was talking to her on the phone, and she was asking exactly what time I was fighting," Guerrero says. "I told her, and she said, `OK, I'll be praying at exactly 7 o'clock. Don't think about me. Just think about what you have to do.' That's the way she is."

And Guerrero believes he'll have Casey's support for the rest of his life. Two weeks ago, on her 24th birthday, Casey learned her leukemia was in remission.

Until Casey makes a full recovery, the Ghost will keep doing the right thing for his family and his profession.
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