Undefeated middleweight Fernando Guerrero returns to Mississippi to headline the main event of an eight-bout boxing card tonight at Desoto Civic Center in Southaven. Billed as the “Best of the Best,” the three 10-round bouts feature four undefeated fighters and will be televised live on Showtime. Guerrero (18-0, 15 KOs) promises thrills in his bout with veteran Ishe Smith (21-4, 9 KOs).

“The louder they scream, the more people there is, the more action they’re going to see,” said the 23-year-old southpaw.

“I want to give a good show. People don’t come just to see an event, they come to see a performance. I think a great performance, even if it’s not with a knockout, it’s an attempt of a knockout.”

The Salisbury, Md. native said Mississippi feels like home to him since eight of his fights, including his professional debut in 2007, were held at the Fitzgerald Casino in Tunica.

“Even though Salisbury has been my hometown and all the Salisburians are there for me, Mississippi is just like it,” he said.

Guerrero’s aggressive, exciting fighting style has earned him a dedicated fan base. His fights in Tunica were well attended and he draws thousands to the fights in Salisbury, a town of 28,000 in eastern Maryland.

Humble beginnings

Before he became one of boxing’s hottest prospects poised for a world title shot, he was a poor kid in the Dominican Republic.

“I never knew that I was poor until I came to America,” said Guerrero, who moved to the U.S. when he was 8. “I thought that everybody was poor. We had no shoes. We had to get our own water. We had to grow our fruits, our food, everything.”

Running 10 miles a day to train for a fight isn’t so bad, he said, when you’re used to walking miles everyday while carrying a bucket of water on your head.

“It’s a privilege for me because I used to do it for me living, now I’m doing it for my job,” he said. “For me it’s nothing. I think that there’s no limit to anything right now because we used to be in the worst position.”

Guerrero’s manager and co-trainer Hal Chernoff, who has trained Guerrero for nearly a decade, said his humble beginnings made him unspoiled.

“This is a kid that didn’t need a lot to exist because he never had a lot,” he said. “In every aspect of Fernando’s life, if you gave him a little, to him. it was a lot. If you gave him your time, it was appreciated. If you gave him your shirt, it was appreciated, and that created a great work ethic.”

Guerrero began boxing at age 14 in Chernoff’s Main Street Gym in Salisbury and trains there to this day. He didn’t like boxing at first but decided to stick with it because he was “trying to find himself” and had given up other sports.

“Nobody likes to say that they like to get hit, that would be crazy,” he said. “But I kept doing it because I’m like ‘Man, I kind of quit everything, I’ve got to push something. And me being the crazy person that I am, I kind of picked the hardest sport to stick with it.”

A Father-Son Relationship

When Guerrero was 17, his father decided to move back to the Dominican Republic. Guerrero chose to stay so he could continue his boxing career with Chernoff. Guerrero moved in with Chernoff and his wife Nancy and continues to live with them.

“I’ve had lots of boxers live in my home,” Chernoff said “It’s not a big deal for us. If the kid is in need, we’re there.”

Chernoff has been “like another father” to Guerrero.

“I remember when I was young he told me ‘You’re gonna be a champion,’ but he didn’t just mean a champion in the ring,” he said. “He meant a champion in everything.”

Guerrero cited how Chernoff would push him to make better grades. Guerrero was making B’s in school, but Chernoff insisted he could do better, and by the end of the school year, he had a 4.0 grade point average.

“He told me he wanted to make me into a man and teach me stuff, not just about boxing. He’ll say if you really want to be a better person and an honest person you have to clean your room. An organized person, not just in boxing, is an organized person in life.”

Chernoff said he has a few “very, very special things” in his life and Fernando is one of them.

“It’s not because he’s on the verge of being a boxing champion,” he said. “He’s just a person that I’ve been pretty blessed to have around me because I’ve learned a lot from him. I’ve learned how to be patient.”

“I lost a son when he was very young, I still got a daughter, but with Fernando it kind of gives me a chance to see how I would have interacted with a son even though he’s not my son.”

Role model status

Children in Salisbury look up to Guerrero, a self-described “big kid” himself. He volunteers with the Boys and Girls Club and often takes kids who train at the gym out to movies.

“Being a role model to kids makes me a better person,” Guerrero said. “Being with kids and telling them what’s right and wrong keeps me from doing the wrong thing because if I do the wrong thing that would make me be a hypocrite.”

Guerrero said he already has plans to throw a barbeque party in Salisbury after the fight “for no reason, just to unite everybody.”

“He’s got just an unbelievable good heart on him, and it comes out wherever he is,” Chernoff said. “He’s the guy that’s on his way to a fight and sees you stuck in a snow bank and says ‘Stop the car, let’s help them out.’ That’s Fernando, because he wants to. He just enjoys helping people.”

Tough test for Guerrero

Smith, Guerrero’s opponent, has never been knocked out or even knocked down and his four losses have come from fighters who were undefeated or had one loss.

Showtime boxing analyst Steve Farhood, who will provide color commentary Friday, said there’s a good chance it will go the full 10 rounds.

“Guerrero better bring his lunch pail because it’s probably going to be a long fight,” he said. “It’s by far the biggest name and the toughest test to date for Guerrero.”

Guerrero will need to make use of his strength and size advantage, Farhood said.

“For Guerrero, patience will be critical,” he said. “He’s gonna need to set a pace that the veteran won’t like. It will probably serve him best to attack and get close.”

Smith, on the other hand, will need to increase his usual punch output while utilizing his quickness and counter punching ability, he said.

Farhood said he sees star appeal in Guerrero, citing his exciting style, strong amateur background of 140 fights and radiant personality.

“He has a certain presence and charisma that a lot of young fighters don’t have,” he said. “It’s unmistakable. And as soon as he walks in the room, he illuminates it.”