By Dan Ambrose: Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero had a big setback on Wednesday with the California State Athletic Commission opting not to accept the 30-year-old Guerrero’s arbitration request to have his contract with Golden Boy Promotions ruled invalid so that he can walk away from it. Guerrero will now need to take his case to New York if he’s to break the contract.
“The New York State Athletic Commission does not have an arbitration procedure for boxers in contractual disputes, so Guerrero would have to pursue his case through the New York courts,” ESPN’s Rafael said.
It doesn’t mean that it’s over for Guerrero and his lawyer. It just means they’ll need to try and break the contract with Golden Boy in New York.
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer predicted that the California Commission wouldn’t be able to rule on their contract with Guerrero, because the contract was put together in New York. Schaefer knew that Guerrero and his lawyer would need to take the matter up there if they wanted to try and have the contract ruled invalid.
Guerrero has to hope that he’d not tied down for a long time in trying to get out of the contract, because he’s already been out of the ring for the past 8 months since his lopsided 12 round unanimous decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last May.
If this drags through all of 2014, Guerrero could wind up as another fighter who has let his best years get past him without fighting. Guerrero was out of action for 15 months after his win over Michael Katsidis in April of 2011 due to s shoulder injury he suffered while training for a fight against Marcos Maidana. Guerrero didn’t fight again until his bout with Selcuk Aydin in July of 2012. It’s looking like Guerrero could miss an entire year of action if he doesn’t get the contract matter settled quickly in the New York courts. He has no fights scheduled now, although Schaefer wants to get Guerrero back in the ring as soon as possible. It’ll be up to him whether he wants to accept the fights offered to him by Golden Boy. Schaefer says that Guerrero turned down a fight against Keith Thurman that he had for him last December on the Adrien Broner vs. Marcos Maidana fight card.
If Guerrero loses in his effort to get out of the contract with Golden Boy then he’s going to need to find a way to be successful against their fighters. Schaefer is interested in matching him against pretty much anyone in the Golden Boy stable in the 140-147 weight classes.
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