De La Rosas victorious!

By Roy Hess at ringside

Brothers J.P. and James De La Rosa made Saturday night’s “Sons of the Valley” boxing show at Harlingen Baseball Field a success with victories in the outdoor card’s featured bouts. J.P. “El Gallo Negro” De La Rosa (20-3-1, 15 knockouts) pounded out an eight-round unanimous decision ( 80-71, 78-73, 78-73 ) against Guadalupe Martinez (16-3, nine KOs) of Sugar Land in the main event matching middleweights. “King” James De La Rosa (19-0, 12 KOs), J.P.’s younger brother, prevailed in the six-round co-main event of super welterweights when his opponent, Marteze Logan (26-36-2, six KOs) of Covington, Tenn., was disqualified at the 1:15 mark of the sixth by referee David Avalos for repeatedly holding.

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For J.P., defeating a quality opponent such as Martinez in front of his hometown fans was especially gratifying since he was making a comeback after a year away from boxing. “It feels great to be back and beat a tough opponent,” J.P. said. “I always said I wouldn’t come back against a chump. This guy was a very tough fighter from Houston. After my brother did his thing (and won), I couldn’t come out and disappoint everybody. James had the whole crowd on its feet, and I planned on doing the same thing. I couldn’t let this guy come in here and beat me in my house.

“It was great to fight in front of all these fans, I love them, and it’s just great to be back,” he added. After eight rounds, Martinez’s face was clearly red and puffy, while De La Rosa’s face showed little signs of being hit.

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Although “King” James was pleased to get a win, he was somewhat frustrated by the way it came about. From the start, Logan frequently went for the clinch, apparently trying to avoid being knocked out. He succeeded in not getting KO’d, but couldn’t avoid the ire of referee Avalos, who soon became fed up with his antics and stopped the fight.
“It got pretty frustrating the way he was holding me so much,” James said of Logan. “It was hard to work like I wanted to work. I had to throw whatever punches I could get off. It was just an ugly fight. He was telling me that I was holding too much, and when he talked trash to me, I talked trash, too, and just took it right back to him.”

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In another featured bout billed as a 10-round NABC lightweight title fight, “The ONE” Rashad Ganaway (9-0-1, seven KOs) of Little Rock, Ark., fought to a draw against Jaime “Super-fly” Sandoval (15-3-1, 12 KOs) of Austin. There was some confusion as the ring announcer initially proclaimed Ganaway as the winner, and then corrected himself by saying the fight was a draw. Upon hearing the change, the crowd booed the result loudly. “I thought for sure I won,” Ganaway said. “I definitely want a rematch.”

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In other undercard bouts, heavyweight Homer “Oso” Fonseca (7-2-2, two KOs) of Driscoll won by unanimous decision as did super flyweight Joseph Rios (6-3, two KOs) of San Antonio. Also, welterweight J.D. Charles (5-0, one KO) of Kingsville dispatched Gilbert Elizondo (5-2-1, two KOs) of San Antonio on a technical knockout at the 2:47 mark of the second round.

Roy Hess writes for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him via e-mail at rhess@brownsvilleherald.com