A renewed Jose Roman faces Marco Antonio Lopez on Friday

Jun

Second chances matter a lot to a fighter. Just ask Jose Roman.

After going winless in back-to-back fights late in 2012, Roman has rejuvenated his career and could be on the verge of becoming a contender in the lightweight division.

Roman will fight Marco Antonio Lopez in an eight-round bout on Friday night at the DoubleTree Hotel in Ontario, Calif. The bout will headline a five-bout Thompson Boxing card dubbed, “New Blood.”

After making his pro debut in June of 2008, Roman (20-1-1, 14 KOs) would eventually sign with Top Rank Promotions. He won his first 14 bouts in a row before going winless in his next two bouts, culminating in a disappointing eight-round split decision loss to Robert Osiobe in Dec. of 2012.

It would be almost a year until Roman returned to the ring. He was no longer signed to Top Rank but looked to rebuild himself.

He has won his last six bouts in a row and in his last bout on April 24, Roman stopped Martin Cardona in the third round.

“That’s been one of the great things about signing with Thompson Boxing [last year],” said Roman, who resides in nearby Garden Grove. “They’ve done a great job of keeping me busy.”

In his last bout on April 25, Lopez (24-6, 15 KOs) was stopped in the fifth round by Felix Verdejo. He has lost four of his last five bouts, with those losses coming at the hands of Verdejo, Jaider Parra, Takahiro Ao and Kevin Mitchell.

In the co-feature, lightweight prospect Cesar Villarraga, who represented Colombia in the 2012 Olympic Games, will fight Jose Luis Araiza. Unbeaten heavyweight and United States Olympic Trials runner-up LaRon Mitchell will fight Roy McCrary.

Both bouts will be scheduled for six rounds.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV since Oct. of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, Boxingscene.com, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing.