Ruben Guerrero By Dan Ambrose: Ruben Garcia, the trainer/father of #6 WBC Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (33-3-1, 18 KOs), took a shot at #2 WBC Danny Garcia (31-0, 18 KOs) this past week in saying he’s not Puerto Rican and he doesn’t know what he is.

Garcia’s parents are Puerto Rican, but he was born in the United States. Garcia and Guerrero will be facing each other this Saturday night on Premier Boxing Champions on Fox at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

“We got a lot of Latinos, Chicanos and all the Mexicanos and all the haters, especially all the haters,” Ruben said to Martin Gallegos. They’re going to find out when we win and they’re going to come from us, bro. All the haters and the doubters. I think they’re [the fans] going for us. This guy [Garcia] doesn’t speak a Latin word or Puerto Rico. Like they say, he’s not a real Puerto Rican. He just says he is but he’s not. I don’t know what he is. We haven’t figured that out yet. He’s got to find it out. It’s going to be his nightmare. He’s going to figure it out quick,” Ruben said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmRDvPLCtwg

Garcia and Guerrero will be fighting for the vacant WBC welterweight title. It was a controversial move by the World Boxing Council to allow the Garcia-Guerrero fight to be for their WBC 147lb title, because there are higher ranked contenders than those two fighters that arguably should have been the ones fighting for the WBC title. Amir Khan is ranked #1 by the WBC, and Shawn Porter is #3, Lamont Peterson #4 and Andre Berto is #5.

You would think that some of those fighters should have been the ones fighting for the WBC welterweight title rather than Garcia and Guerrero. The WBC’s rankings are kind of backwards as well. They have Errol Spence Jr. at No.9, and it’s quite likely that he would KO the smaller Guerrero and Garcia. Spence has more size and punching power than Garcia and Guerrero. I don’t think it would even be a fair fight.

.@GHOSTBOXING knows some fans think he's finished—but he says he'll prove on #PBConFOX that he's not done just yet. pic.twitter.com/85jSqznCq2

— PBC (@premierboxing) January 17, 2016

Why the WBC has Spence ranked below those two fighters is unknown, because I believe in the future, Spence is going to be a much better fighter than Garcia and Guerrero could ever hope to be in the 147lb division. That’s not to say that Guerrero and Garcia weren’t very good fighters before they moved up to welterweight. Garcia was an excellent champion at 140. I don’t think he was the best, but he was one of the best.

I think Garcia would have lost to Terence Crawford, Viktor Postol and Adrien Broner if he had stayed in that division. I also think he would have lost to Lamont Peterson in a rematch. Guerrero was a very good fighter at featherweight, super featherweight and lightweight. I don’t think he’s nearly the same fighter he once was now that he’s competing at welterweight. I don’t think Guerrero belongs in this division because he’s not powerful enough to compete against the real top guys like Thurman and definitely not against Spence.

The oddsmakers at Bovado have Danny Garcia a clear favorite in the fight at -800 to Robert Guerrero’s +500. It’s pretty clear why Garcia is the favorite in the fight. He’s younger at 27 compared to the 32-year-old Guerrero, and he doesn’t have all the recent defeats on his resume that Guerrero has had.

That’s not to say that Garcia wouldn’t have the same defeats. If Garcia had fought the guys that Guerrero recently fought, you could make a very good argument that Garcia would be coming into this Saturday’s fight with at least two defeats on his resume. Guerrero’s losses in the last three years have come against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Keith Thurman. It’s not likely that Garcia would beat either of those two fighters. Garcia couldn’t even beat Mauricio Herrera and Lamont Peterson without controversy.

There are a lot of fans who believe that Garcia’s record 29-2 because of his questionable wins over Peterson and Herrera. Never the less, Garcia would have had major problems if he had fought Mayweather and Thurman like Guerrero did. It’ quite possible that Garcia would have lost to both of those guys just as bad as Guerrero did if not worse. Garcia did not look good in his recent fight against Peterson last year in getting walked down by him in the entire second half of the fight and taking punishment.