By Thomas Gerbasi

It’s almost hard to believe that after winning several world titles, fighting the best of the best in multiple weight classes and engaging in one memorable battle after another, Robert Guerrero is still only 34 years old.

“I think I’m like Wolverine,” he laughed. “I’m getting in better shape. God is great, that’s all I’ve got to say.”

Unfortunately for Guerrero, he doesn’t have an adamantium skeleton like Old Man Logan, so after 41 bouts and more than 16 years as a pro, he has to constantly reassess where he’s at in the great scheme of things in the welterweight division. And these days, he’s confident he can remain among the best at 147 pounds.

“I’m feeling great, and I haven’t felt this way since maybe I was 22, 23 years old,” he said. “I’ve been rebuilding, taking care of my body, getting in shape, and working on stuff that I’ve needed to work on that I haven’t been able to.”

That means the 11 months since his last bout against David Peralta in August 2016 haven’t just been spent enjoying the good life at home in Gilroy, California. “The Ghost” has gotten back to basics, hoping to retool some of the techniques he abandoned since moving to welterweight in 2012.

Among the big boys, the former 126, 130 and 135-pound belt holder saw that high volume brawling was not only winning fights for him, but gaining him fans as well. And though his victories over the likes of Selcuk Aydin, Andre Berto and Yoshihiro Kamegai thrust him into big fights, against Floyd Mayweather, Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia, he wasn’t able to get the job done. So in the past year, he went into the woodshed to find himself again.

“Fighting the way I was fighting at 147 pounds is, in reality, the lazy man’s way,” Guerrero said. “Just come forward, put pressure on and punch. I wasn’t hitting angles, not using my God-given ability, my handspeed. I would just bury my head in the chest and keep punching away, and that’s not going to get it done at 147 pounds. So I know deep in my heart with what I’ve done and what I can do by being in great shape, it’s there. I know I can do a lot more in the division and, especially right now, 147 pounds is the most stacked division and the most exciting division, and I want to be right back there on top and show the world what I can do.”

He’s got his opportunity this Saturday when he travels to Long Island to face Omar Figueroa in a PBC main event on FOX. The matchup is a win for PBC, a win for FOX and a win for the fans. But will it be a win for Guerrero? If he fights his fight, it very well may be. But even if he goes back to what he’s been doing over the last few years, that could still be a victory, albeit one of a different sort,

“You work hard, take care of business and the fans know they’re gonna get something good out of it,” he said. “They know I come to fight, I pour my heart out in that ring and I don’t show up to rob them of what they deserve. You have to give credit to Figueroa because he comes to fight also and people love the way he fights. So when you get two guys clashing like that, it’s one of those Micky Ward-Arturo Gatti or Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez type of fights.”

How does he explain that to his wife and kids that this could be a possibility?

“You don’t,” Guerrero laughs. “You just go, ‘Hey, we’re ready.’”