Guevara looking forward to rematch on undercard of Top Rank boxing show this week in Harlingen

Gilbert "Chicano" Guevara has waited nine months to fight Gilbert "Boogie" Vera of Austin again.

The Brownsville welterweight reached a disappointing point of his pro boxing career last June 16 in Austin when he suffered a second-round loss to Vera on a technical knockout at the Erwin Center. It was a fight for the state junior welterweight title.

Since then, the 22-year-old, 2004 Porter High School graduate has won his last two fights in impressive fashion to put his career back on track.

Guevara (7-3-1, 2 knockouts) gets another chance to prove himself against Vera (7-1-1, 4 KOs) on Friday night on the undercard of the Top Rank "Team Supreme" boxing show at Harlingen Municipal Auditorium.

The two boxers will meet in a scheduled six-round bout matching 147-pounders.

"I’m going to be ready this time," Guevara said. "Whatever he (Vera) brings, I’m going to be ready for it.

"I don’t really see it as unfinished business because there are no excuses," he added. "He beat me. It was depressing at the time, and I started blaming everybody for what happened, but I was the one doing the fighting. So all I did was get over it and move on.

"This time, it’s payback. He better be ready because I’m going to bring everything I have."

Guevara is coming off a six-round unanimous decision (59-55, 59-55, 58-56) over Carlos de la Cruz (10-10-1, 10 KOs) of Matamoros on Jan. 18 at Jacob Brown Auditorium in Brownsville. De la Cruz came into the fight 14 pounds heavier than Guevara, but the Brownsville boxer still prevailed with a solid performance against a heavy-duty puncher.

Prior to his win over de la Cruz, Guevara knocked out Orlando Cantera of San Antonio in the second round on Nov. 30, 2007, also at Jacob Brown Auditorium.

The scheduled 10-round main event on Friday’s Top Rank card will match super flyweights Raul "Cobrita" Martinez (21-0, 13 KOs) of San Antonio against Benjamin Garcia (12-9-3, 1 KO) of San Diego, Calif.

The co-main event will feature Harlingen’s "King" James De La Rosa (15-0, 11 KOs), a WBC Youth Welterweight Champion and 2004 Harlingen High graduate, going against Donald Tamarena (18-4, 9 KOs) of Denver, Colo.

The De La Rosa-Tamarena bout is also scheduled for 10 rounds and will be the first fight of the night to air on Telefutura’s “Solo Boxeo” fight series at 7 p.m., according to promoters. The Martinez-Garcia clash is scheduled to follow on Telefutura’s live broadcast.

In all, six fights are planned on the card.

General admission tickets for the event are $20. Ringside VIP tickets are also available. For more information, call 200-1973 or 200-1049.