TalkingBoxing Articles
De la Rosa, Guerrero Triumph in Lively ShoBox Event
MON October 6, ANDRES ANTONIO CARRIEDO - “King” James De la Rosa won a closely contested unanimous decision in a highly skillful and entertaining matchup against the fellow prospect Tim Coleman at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center in Salisbury, MD in the ShoBox main event last night. However, it was Fernando Guerrero’s presence on the card in the night’s co-feature that sold the tickets. The event staged in front of a packed 6,000+ crowd at the local arena had an energy usually reserved for higher level cards, but last night’s episode of ShoBox was one of the more lively cards in recent memory for a ShoBox event.
The show began with Guerrero’s homecoming match against previously unbeaten Tyrone Watson. Guerrero, who signed with Prize Fight promotions after failing to make the US Olympic team with his loss to Shawn Porter in the US boxing trials in August of 2007, fought six of his first nine professional bouts in Prize Fight’s highly successful “Fights at the Fitz” series in Tunica, MS and had never fought outside the south. So, his debut in his hometown on Maryland’s eastern seaboard was eagerly awaited by his fans in Salisbury, MD.
Though Tyrone Watson was game, Guerrero broke his will to win very early in the fight. By the second half of the first round Guerrero began teeing off on Watson. In the second, when Watson came out with renewed vigor Guerrero beat him back with a nearly endless onslaught of power shots. By the second half of the third round Guerrero appeared to be on the verge of a stoppage victory, but Watson managed to survive. In the fourth through sixth rounds Watson assumed a defensive posture early and occasionally snuck a straight right in to keep the forward pressing Guerrero honest though by rounds end Guerrero invariably landed the cleaner, harder punches.
With the crowd chanting his name Guerrero went for broke in an attempt to score a KO victory in both the seventh and eighth rounds. He spun out of several attempted clinches by Watson and began mixing vicious body shots into his attack. Like many other Barry Hunter trained fighters, Guerrero is a well schooled aggressive fighter, but he began to get a little sloppy with his defense and ate a few punches down the stretch. He was never in any danger, though, and though he did not score his sought after KO he won every round en route to a crowd pleasing 80-72 (twice), 80-71 unanimous decision victory.
The main event began with both De la Rosa and Coleman fighting on fairly even terms. With 1:15 left in the opening round De la Rosa landed the first clean, stinging punch of the fight; a left hook to the jaw of Coleman. Probably to the surprise of the untested De la Rosa, Coleman responded by landing an even better left hook 15 seconds later and pounding De la Rosa’s body for the remainder of the round. A similarly effective right cross from Coleman about 30 seconds into the second round led to a wild two way exchange. Coleman got the better of this exchange and continued to punish De la Rosa’s rib cage over the course of the next few rounds.
The tide in the fight began to ebb slightly midway through the third round when De la Rosa had his most effective moment up to that point. Coleman began walking forward without much concern for the punches coming back and De la Rosa opened up for two separate and effective four punch combos. Coleman eventually returned fire and won the round back while pinning De la Rosa on the ropes for the last 20 seconds of the round.
In the fourth and fifth rounds, De la Rosa began to seize control of the pace and flow of the fight. He dominated Coleman with a steady, assorted variety of punches. He landed left hooks to both the body and head. He set up one twos from the middle of the ring and when he had Coleman pinned on the ropes, De la Rosa even began landing right uppercut-left hooks combos to the body. Coleman took control of the fight back for much of the sixth round, but a brutal onslaught over the rounds final 15 seconds by De la Rosa probably kept the tally on his side of the scorecard.
The seventh was clearly Coleman’s round. The Marylander renewed his body attack and landed three very clean right hands. The eighth was fought on very even terms and Coleman’s strong finish probably won him that round as well. In the ninth, though, the tough Texan De la Rosa began to utilize his reach and teed off when he had Coleman on the ropes to close out the round. With the fight still in doubt, Coleman began the 10th round strong. De la Rosa took advantage of Coleman’s obvious fatigue, though, and was able to escape with a narrow victory going away.
In true ShoBox fashion, even the loser came out of the fight with an improved profile. Though Coleman lost for the first time in his professional career, he showed quite a skill set against a physical bigger and gifted prospect. De la Rosa showed true grit in outlasting a tough fellow prospect in a grueling fight. Guerrero also established himself as a bonafide 160 lb. prospect, genuine ticket seller and fan favorite.
Is Winning the Trials Really a Win?
Shawn Estrada got the once in a lifetime opportunity to represent his country in the Beijing Olympic Games. All clichés aside, though, what Estrada really won last August was the distinction of being the 165 lb. representative on the worst US Olympic Boxing team in recent memory. Estrada did get to participate in dual meets for the US team, travel the world and even win a match in Beijing. Those are amazing opportunities that undoubtedly gave him enough memories and stories to last a lifetime. Unfortunately for his professional prospects, the US Olympic team performed so poorly that he chose to sign with a start up promotional company that has no history of developing top amateur talent into world championship caliber professionals. Compare that, however, to Danny Jacobs and Fernando Guerrero the second and fourth place finishers, respectively, in the 165 lb. division at the US trials. Both are 10-0 with 9 KOs at the pro level.
Jacobs is considered Golden Boy Promotions and Al Haymon’s brightest prospect from the 2007 amateur class. Keep in mind that both Golden Boy and Haymon signed more than their fair share of talent from that class. Jacobs is already on HBO’s radar and was considered for the co-feature of the 11/22 World Championship Boxing telecast headlined by Ricky Hatton’s 140 lb title defense against Paulie Malignaggi. Though Jacobs was eventually rejected because he’s still a little too green, that does not mean he will not be on HBO’s airwaves soon. Golden Boy and Haymon are grooming Jacobs to be a star/face of the sport.
Guerrero is very popular in his promotional company, Prize Fight Promotions,’ region of the south and is wildly popular in the mid-Atlantic coast region where he grew up. His foreign credentials as a Dominican immigrant figure to earn him popularity in the Caribbean and throughout Latin America. Couple that with the fact that both Jacobs and Guerrero have shown consistent improvement and immense raw potential and you see where this argument is going. I’ve always been a proponent of amateur credentials, but especially in the case of the 165 lb. division the difference between the winner and a couple of the losers is stark.
Estrada beat Jacobs twice during the trials including a decisive 24-14 in the final. Now, 14 months later Jacobs is the one on a clear path to superstardom while Estrada is mostly off the radar and signed to a promotional company that is hinging its future entirely on Estrada. Estrada also beat Guerrero by a score of 20-12 earlier in the tournament. But it’s Guerrero who signed with a promotional company that has a successful prospect level series at a local casino and a history of developing A level prospects like the Peterson brothers.
Estrada’s success at the trials and ultimately disappointing performance in Beijing almost make what happened in August 2007 in Houston, TX appear like a Pyrrhic victory. It’s possible, though unlikely, that had either Jacobs or Guerrero represented the US at 165 lbs. they might have improved the US’s overall performance by winning a medal. However, their losses inoculated them from any association with those failures.
Estrada’s participation on the 2008 team is almost a stain on his reputation. His professional career has not gotten started yet. So, it’s possible that three to five years from now some of these points I am making will look ridiculous in hindsight. I tend to think that most members of the 2008 team will not recover from what happened in Beijing any time soon. Stories of near mutiny against their coach Dan Campbell, poor attitudes and a low medal count will hurt especially the lesser accomplished members like Estrada. So, really, what did Estrada win at the trials?
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