Robert Guerrero Suffers Injury, Cancels Maidana Fight, Amir Khan Cries Foul

Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions has announced the disappointing news that WBA and WBO Interim World lightweight (135 lbs) champion Robert Guerrero (29-1-1, 18 KOs), who was set to make his junior welterweight (140 lbs) debut on August 27 against Marcos Maidana (30-2, 27 KOs), has suffered a shoulder injury and will not be able to compete.

Schaefer's announcement was made at a conference that was supposed to feature both fighters hyping their fight in San Jose where the tickets were nearly sold out. According to ESPN, Schaefer mentioned the following:

"

We're afraid it is a torn rotator cuff. We don't know. As a result, the fight card, which we were all very much looking forward to, has unfortunately been canceled. I hope it will be rescheduled. This is a fight that was on track to selling out in San Jose. It really is very unfortunate that this exciting showdown is not happening at this point. We wish and hope that Robert will be well and that it is an injury that can be taken care of. When I talked to Bob Santos he sounded extremely, extremely, extremely concerned. This is a big setback for (Guerrero).

"

Santos is Guerrero's manager. With the news came immediate reaction from a few members of the boxing community. The most notable so far has been from Maidana's one-time rival, Amir Khan (26-1, 18 KOs).

According to Boxing Scene, Khan tweeted, "No injury, I reckon Maidana paid off Guerrero step aside money, so he can become the WBA champ because I have moved up as WBA super champ."

Khan is referring to the WBA's policy of upgrading their belt holders from "regular" world champions to "super" world champions when they hold more than one major sanctioning organization's world title.

Khan recently defeated Zab Judah to acquire the IBF world junior welterweight championship. Khan already held the WBA title from his win over Maidana last year, so capturing Judah's title upgraded him to "super" status.

That also left the "regular" title vacant. Maidana and Guerrero were to fight for that title.

My Two Scents

Is Khan right? I hope not.

Is Guerrero's arm really hurt? I hope not and I hope so.

I hope so, because this would be just another sad story of Boxing's corruption if his injury turned out to be false.

But I do wish his injury wasn't so severe, so the match wouldn't be called off.

But as with what happened when bantamweights Abner Mares and Joseph Agbeko, who were originally scheduled for April, the match was rescheduled for August because of a pinched nerve in Agbeko's back.

A similar situation may happen here, where Maidana and Guerrero may face each other by December if not early next year.

So an injury is not the end of the fight necessarily, just the indefinite delay of it.