There is no doubt Derrell Coley "talked-the-talk" before his Saturday night fight against Oscar De La Hoya by boldly predicting he would knock out De La Hoya in round six of their welterweight (147-pound limit) fight.
But when it came time to "walk-the-walk," Coley failed miserably.
I'm sure you're well aware that De La Hoya scored a 7th-round knockout win over Coley to improve his record to 32-1 and he did it easily. Other than the first half of round four, when Coley stunned De La Hoya and had Oscar in a little trouble, Coley lost every round and was no match for the "Golden Boy."
After Coley couldn't knock Oscar out as he predicted in round six - Coley didn't even win that round - he went down from a body shot in round seven and stayed on one knee while the referee counted him out. It's obvious Coley could have continued, but he wisely chose to stay down and it's hard to fault him for that.
Coley, now 34-2-2, was outclassed by the former welterweight champ De La Hoya, who won the IBA joke-of-a-title for his effort. It was a good win for Oscar and he won like an 8-1 favorite should. De La Hoya said afterward he wants to fight three more times this year and Felix Trinidad is on his short list of possible opponents.
There's only one problem. Trinidad has moved up in weight and will challenge undefeated junior middleweight (154-limit) champ David Reid this Friday in Las Vegas for that title. A Trinidad loss would severely damage the chances of a rematch with De La Hoya and might even kill that match altogether. Trinidad would probably want a Reid rematch rather than fight Oscar again, so we'll have to wait until we see what happens Friday night.
Reid, 16-0, was the only U.S. Boxer to win a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics and has sharply improved his skills since then. I don't know if he can beat Trinidad, but I wouldn't bet against it and this fight should be a much better contest action-wise (and hopefully decision-wise if the bout goes the distance) than the Trinidad-De La Hoya fight was.
The fight is available on pay-per-view TV and the card, which begins at 6 p.m., will also include Julio Cesar Chavez in action as well as fights for Christy Martin and Ray Mercer. Call 882-2136 for PPV details.
The De La Hoya card, which came from Madison Square Garden and was shown live on HBO, also featured Arturo Gatti fighting Joey Gamache in a lightweight (135-limit) fight that saw Gatti knock Gamache down twice in round one and finish Gamache off early in round two in an exciting fight for as long as it lasted.
Also, HBO had both Michael Grant and Lennox Lewis on together live as they hyped their April 29 heavyweight title fight. Sadly, neither said anything we haven't heard before as they tried to promote a fight many believe won't sell.
-- If you don't order the PPV fights but still want to watch boxing Friday night, ESPN2 has its regular live fight card that starts at 6:30 p.m. The main event has Paul Spadafora defending his IBF lightweight title against challenger Victoriano Sosa, a cousin of baseballs Sammy Sosa. Spadafora is 29-0 with 23 KO's and Sosa is 24-1-1 with 19 KO's.
Last Friday produced a big surprise in the ESPN2 main event. Undefeated and big favorite Vivian Harris, from Georgetown, Guyana, who now fights out of Brooklyn, took on trial horse Ray Oliviera in a 10-round junior welterweight (140-limit) fight.
The Lou Duva prospect Harris, undefeated at 16-0 with 13 KO's and only 21-years old, was supposed to have an easy time with Oliveira, who is 10 years older than Harris and who brought a 37-7-1, 16 KO's record into the fight.
Well, Harris took it on the chin from the journeyman Oliveriera, losing a unanimous decision in what was an ordinary fight with a shocking result! So much for the favorite winning every time out.
-- Down in Las Vegas over the weekend, Carson City Boxing Club fighters Mike Peralta and Dwyane Pope fought in the Nevada State Golden Gloves tournament and both lost.
"Mike lost by split decision to Abelino Chavez (From Barry's Boxing Club in Vegas) in a close fight," said CCBC Head Coach Frank Peralta, who is Mike's father. "It was a pretty fair decision. We've just got to work harder and be more ready next time .... we'll be back."
Frank Peralta also reported that Pope was stopped in round two by another Barry's Boxing fighter, Salvador Hernandez. That was in the 156-pound weight class. Mike Peralta fought in the 139-pound class.
If all goes as planned, five CCBC fighters will be in action on March 18 in Reno, the next amateur card for this area.
-- Better news for Joey Gilbert of the Silver & Gold Boxing Club in Virginia City. He won both of his bouts at the Golden Gloves and will advance to the Western Regional Golden Gloves championships the weekend of April 1 in Las Vegas.
Gilbert was taken to Vegas by coach Joe Jefferson. That's because Silver & Gold head boxing coach Bob Lee was in Connecticut. Lee worked the corner of Sacramento's Michael Simms Jr. That was at the U.S. Olympic Trials (shown Saturday on NBC) and Simms won in the 178-pound class and will be a member of the U.S. team that fights at the summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
-- One last note. On the Sunday night Fox fight card, John-John Molina won his 50th career fight when he stopped Juan Carlos Suarez in round seven of their lightweight fight from Miami. Molina, now 50-6 with 34 KO's, won the unheard of WBC Caribbean lightweight title, for whatever that's worth.
Alan Rogers is the Nevada Appeal boxing writer.
