JAMES DE LA ROSA vs TIM COLEMAN

Unbeaten welterweights top the bill in an interesting and potentially thrilling 10-round main event event on ShoBox on Friday when James De La Rosa, from Harlingen, TX, takes on local-area fighter Tim Coleman at Salisbury, MD, in a match made at 149 pounds.

De La Rosa, only 20, has a Mexican father while his mother is African-American, and he honours the heritage of both parents by sporting the U.S. and Mexican flags on his trunks.

Although De La Rosa looked workmanlike rather than exciting when outpointing Troy Wilson in his last fight, his camp puts the blame on Wilson for boxing strictly to survive. “All the guy wanted to do was hold and run,” De La Rosa’s manager, Anthony Cavazos said of Wilson. “If Coleman comes to fight, that’s the kind of fight James likes.”

Coleman, 24, is definitely someone who will be coming to fight. He is the local fighter and will have the crowd on his side. Coleman isn’t that well known outside of the hard-core boxing fraternity but he had a good amateur background and spent about seven years in Las Vegas, where he sparred with world-class fighters, including Floyd Mayweather Jr. His gym form was sufficiently impressive for Floyd Mayweather Sr. to bring him into Oscar De La Hoya’s camp to spar with De La Hoya for the fight with Steve Forbes. (Although Coleman is nicknamed “Pit Bull” he actually has more of a classy, Steve Forbes type of style.)

De La Rosa has given some good performances, such as knocking out David Obregon, a Miami-based Nicaraguan, on his opponent’s home ground at the Miccosukee casino in Miami, and easily blowing out the veteran James Webb in four one-sided rounds. He got in 10 good rounds of boxing when he outpointed the tall, rangy Francisco Rincon for the WBC Youth title.

On Friday, De La Rosa is in his toughest fight, but he is looking forward to the challenge. “There’s going to be a lot of excitement,” manager Cavazos said over the phone on Tuesday. “James is ready. He’s been training 12 rounds with four different sparring partners, and there’s going to be some fireworks. James is an explosive fighter with incredible hand speed. Coleman’s been talking some trash so that’s even better because James steps it up even more.”

Coleman is unimpressed. He feels that De La Rosa has a built-up record. Coleman sees himself as the more mature, more experienced fighter. Although surprisingly held to a draw by veteran Martinus Clay in his last fight, Coleman said that he hurt his left hand in the opening round.

“The reason I call myself Pit Bull is because I raise a bunch of ’em — no matter how slick I am, if it comes down to it I’ve got the fight in me,” Coleman said over the phone from Baltimore on Tuesday.

“I boxed Lamont Peterson, Tim Bradley, in the amateurs, I was always there, but as a kid it was just fun for me. I guess I never thought about it like those guys thought about the amateurs, I always wanted to be a professional and I always had kind of a pro style. I probably had about 180, 190, amateur fights.

“I feel like I’ve got far more experience than the De La Rosa kid. I was out in Puerto Rico with Big Floyd and Oscar for about two months, I grew up in the gym with Little Floyd and got the chance to box with him, I boxed with Zab Judah — you name them, I’ve pretty much been in with those guys.”

He said he hurt his left hand in the first round of his fight with Martinus Clay. “He threw a right hand and I stepped to the outside and threw a hook and cracked all my fingers. I still threw it [the hook] throughout the fight but my fingers were like dislocated, but it was a learning experience. Clay was in great shape, he came hard, but I hurt him a number of times even with the [injured] hand. It was one of the hardest fights I ever fought, because I had to keep throwing that hand.

“A lot of the guys I’ve fought were guys coming in and trying to win the fight. I watched his [De La Rosa’s] fight with Spider Webb, and Webb is like an old man.”

Coleman has stopped only three opponents in 15 bouts but he said: “I don’t look at me not having a lot of knockouts as a big deal because I know I can punch. I’ve been in there with some tough fighters and they all tell me I can crack.”

He was born in Baltimore but went to Las Vegas with his father — his grandmother was dying of cancer and his father wanted to be close to her — when he was about 13 years old. His father was a friend of someone who knew the Mayweathers, Coleman went to the gym and “got hooked” on boxing. He moved back to Baltimore at the age of 20 but said: “I was kinda like back and forth. Baltimore is my home and I can pretty much hang out with my family and focus.

“A lot of people around Maryland come out to the fights. Here, when you have these local events, people show up, so even though Salisbury is about two hours from Baltimore it’s a good venue for me.”

Yet while the location favours him, Coleman feels that what will really count in the fight is his boxing knowledge. “I feel like I’ve had much better work than this kid will ever get, especially for me coming off the summer boxing with Oscar, and I was in Vegas training with Big Floyd and boxing with a lot of different guys,” he said.

Coleman feels that this top-drawer sparring gives him the advantage over De la Rosa. “I just don’t think he’s going to be ready,” he said. “I don’t think training in Texas is going to prepare him for what I’m going to throw at him. I’m not one to trash talk, but I know what I can do.”

This, then, looks like being a well-contested fight. De La Rosa has the higher profile and he is the favourite but Coleman should not be underestimated. I am giving the edge to De La Rosa because he seems to have a clear advantage in punching power and I think he will be able to match Coleman for speed, but he is meeting a well-schooled, confident fighter who is on his home ground — in other words, it’s far from a sure thing.