Guerrero pursues third straight KO against Fitzpatrick

Middleweight prospect Fernando Guerrero, of Salisbury, Md., will pursue his third straight knockout when he makes his fifth appearance on Showtime's ShoBox: The Next Generation against Chris "The Irish Ghost"’ Fitzpatrick on the undercard of a main event featuring former undisputed middleweight champ Jermain Taylor on April 20.

A 25-year-old southpaw, Guerrero (23-1, 18 knockouts) suffered his only loss in June, when he was stopped in the fourth round by a then-40-year-old journeyman, Grady Brewer, a bout for which he weighed in at a career-low 152 pounds and three quarters. 

Since then, however, Guerrero has returned to middleweight, scoring a fifth-round stoppage of Robert Kliewer last December and a fifth-round stoppage of Jason Naugler in February.

Guerrero fought a few pounds over the 160-pound middleweight limit for those fights and will do so again against Fitzpatrick (15-1, 6 KOs), of Las Vegas, whose sixth-round knockout of Ken Dunham in February helped him to rebound from October's unanimous decision loss to Jose Medina.

A resident of Little Rock, Ark., Taylor (29-4-1, 18 KOs) will headline what is a triple-header against Caleb Truax (18-0-1, 10 KOs) after having ended a 26-month ring absence with an eighth-round stoppage of Baltimore's Jessie Nicklow in December.

In another bout, junior middleweight contender Erislandy Lara (15-1-1, 10 KOs) will meet Ronald Hearns (26-2, 20 KOs), as Lara tries to rebound from July's majority decision loss to Paul Williams, a bout most ringsiders thought Lara won.

In his last appearance on ShoBox, Guerrero rose from an eighth-round knockdown to earn a 10-round, unanimous decision victory over veteran Ishe Smith in July of 2010.

Guerrero's other Showtime-televised wins were over Michael Walker, Nicklow, and, Tyrone Watson in April of 2010, December of 2009, and, October of 2008, respectively.

Lem Satterfield can be reached at lemuel.satterfield@gmail.com