Salisbury, MD -This Friday undefeated middleweight prospect Fernando “The Salisbury Sensation” Guerrero (13-0, 11 KOs) will return to his hometown of Salisbury, Maryland, as a headliner. Guerrero, who has fought twice in Salisbury on the under card, will be making his main event debut. Even though he carried the previous two hometown fights in terms of ticket sales, becoming a main event attraction is, nevertheless, a step up in stature for a fighter just 13 fights and 18 months into his professional career. His opponent, Brian “The Assassin” Norman (17-8, 5 KOs), is also a significant step up in competition.
For Norman this fight represents a chance to showcase his skills against an aggressive fighter as he explained, “he’s not a step up for me. I’ll fight anyone in their hometown. It doesn’t make a difference to me. We’re going to see how he handles the fire. This fight isn’t going to the judges. He’s the aggressive fighter, but I’m naturally the bigger and stronger fighter. I’m a grown man, he isn’t going to bully me. I’m coming to fight. We’re fighting. I’m coming to fight!”
Fernando Guerrero, who just returned from training in the higher altitude of Colorado, didn’t talk trash but approached the podium calmly and said, “Everybody that is here today is going to get what they deserve on Friday. It’s about time he (Hal Chernoff, his trainer) stepped me up. I’m happy to be back. Three times now (fighting in Salisbury), I’m gonna be 3-0.”
While Brian Norman’s record looks pedestrian at (17-8) he has fought much better competition including Jean Pascal (22-1, 15 KOs), Joe Greene (20-0, 14 KOs) and Henry “Sugar Pooh” Buchanan (17-2, 12 KOs). However, he lost all of those matches and he is just 2-3 in his last five fights. His two victories came against Curtis Hinton (3-9, 3 KOs) who has been knocked out nine times and Timothy Hall (4-6, 3 KOs) who is currently on a five-fight losing streak.
At this point in Guerrero’s career his team is strategically stepping up his opposition in increments. His last match, in February, Guerrero beat Gabriel Rosado (12-3, 7 KOs), who you probably had never heard of until Rosado upset Kassim Ouma (26-6-1, 16 KOs) two months later in April via ten round split decision. When you look at “The Salisbury Sensation’s” career progression, it appears the emphasis seems to be on Guerrero learning from each match whilst continuing the learning process between fights by having him spar with high caliber champions such as Lamont Peterson and Paul Williams. Like his last two hometown tussles, this match is scheduled for eight rounds.
I believe with this fight Fernando Guerrero and his team will get exactly what they want, a tough opponent that will keep coming at him, but who does have the knockout power (18.5% KO rate) to punch Guerrero’s ticket. What Norman lacks in power he will make up for in heart and toughness, but ultimately the combination of Guerrero’s speed, improving defense and his southpaw stance will keep him undefeated likely by way of unanimous decision. Oddly, Fernando Guerrero has knocked out every person he’s fought away from Salisbury, but settled for eight-round decisions in both of his previous hometown bouts.
The card is titled “Boxing’s Future Champions” because it is packed with prospects including 2007 World Golden Gloves champion and U.S. Olympic Team alternate, light middleweight Shawn Porter (8-0, 6 KOs). Porter will be taking on Dion Savage (5-0, 3 KOs). Savage comes in with a sterling record, but the total career records of his five opponents to date is 5-12-2, with two making their pro debuts and two more having fought just once. While Porter is still a prospect on the come-up, he has taken on much better competition. Look for Shawn “Showtime” Porter to knock Savage out and not settle for a six-round decision.
Dominic Wade (2-0, 2 KOs), who also participated in the 2007 Olympic trials, will be brutalizing Anthony Cannon (4-12, 1 KO) who needs to find a better way to make some dough. Wade made his professional debut in March against Chris Davis (3-1, 1 KOs). The video clip of the vicious overhand right knockout he laid upon Davis is still white-hot on youtube. Cannon has lost eight in a row and was knocked out in five of those contests. The over/under on the scheduled four round fight has to be 1 and I’m not sure it shouldn’t be set lower to give the house a chance to make money.
Farah Ennis (10-0, 5 KOs), is a super middleweights from Philadelphia, who possesses a sneaky jab, slick defense and all around good boxing skills. In his two previous fights in Salisbury he lost a grand total of one round on the judge’s scorecards out of a possible ten. He’ll be swapping leather with Bobby Jordan (6-0-1, 2 KOs) for a scheduled eight rounds. I’ve never seen Jordan fight and could not find a clip of him online, so I cannot make a prediction with any degree of certainty on the outcome of this contest. However, if Jordan expects to win he had better fight brilliantly because Farah Ennis is a very talented boxer that would present problems for any prospect.
While Farah is known to the locals his older brother Derrick “Pooh” Ennis, Jr. (17-2-1, 12 KOs) will be making his Salisbury debut. In the other corner is Joshua “Poison” Onyango (14-17-1, 11 KOs). When it comes to their resumes Ennis, Jr., has fought a cornucopia of unheralded boxers, while Onyango has stood in, and lost against, the likes of Paul “The Punisher” Williams (37-1, 27 KOs) and Yuri Foreman (27-0, 8 KOs). This match is scheduled for eight rounds and I fear it might drag on and drift dangerously close to a cure for insomnia, but hope I’m wrong. Look for “Pooh” to come through with a victory and cross your fingers that we see some fireworks in the process.
To add to the local intrigue, Fernando’s older brother, Alex Guerrero, makes his pro debut against Rodrika Ray (2-1, 1 KO). Ray won his first two fights, but was stopped his last time out in :49 seconds. Alex Guerrero is five years older than Fernando and actually helped give his younger brother his start in the sport. Both Guerrero’s certainly attained a lot of success in the amateurs, let’s see if Guerrero the elder can follow in his little brother’s footsteps and leave the Salisbury crowd wanting more.
It should be a great night of boxing. Come to Salisbury and check it out if you can or pony up the $5 for the online card.
Doors open at 7 PM/ET, first fight 8 PM/ET. Ticket prices range between $15.00 and $125.00 (ringside) and are on sale at the Wicomico Civic Center Box Office or on line at www.WicomicoCivicCenter.org.
The card will air on PPV at www.PrizeFightTV.com, commencing at 8 PM/ET, for only $4.95.