When it was announced that Victoriano Sosa was pulling out of his bout with Angel Manfredy on Lou DiBella's inaugural 'Monday Night Fight's pay-per-view show on March 31st, the show was moved from the Mountaineer Race Track in Chester, W.V., to Little Rock, Ark.

The key to the deal with the Mountaineer Race Track hinged on the Manfredy-Sosa fight. When that fight fell apart, DiBella decided that the show would go on, but in a different venue. Little Rock was the natural choice since it was the hometown of Jermain Taylor, who fought in front of more than 7,000 rabid fans in his first homecoming bout there in August of 2001, when he stopped Efrain Garcia in five rounds.

While Taylor is not the main event on tonight, for all intents and purposes, he will be the sole reason anyone will turn out in Little Rock.

The change of venue more than makes up for the disappointment of losing Brian Barbosa as his opponent. 'The Bull' was supposed to have been Taylor's threshold fight as a professional. Instead, the undefeated middleweight prospect now faces the tough Marcos Primera (14-3).

"I am excited about going back home," Taylor said of his return to Arkansas. "I'm a lil' disappointed about the opponent, but I'm not going to say that this opponent's going to be an easy walkover. I'm going to take him as the same caliber opponent."

And this time out, Taylor isn't coming back to Little Rock as a wide-eyed rookie, but a seasoned young veteran.

"The last time I was in Arkansas, I wasn't as experienced as I am now," Taylor told MaxBoxing.com. "I feel as though I've learned a lot more and I'm just a lot more relaxed in that ring. I'm going to take my time, I'm not going to rush. I've got a lot more ring rounds. I'm just going to take my time in there and have fun."

But Taylor and his team are disappointed that they will not be facing Barbosa, a perennial contender in the middleweight division, who pulled out of the bout a few weeks ago.

"I'm not happy about it. I've had the discussions with Jermain, we trained, very, very hard with guys that are 5-foot-8, 5-foot-9, that are bombers, over-hand rights, left-hookers," said Pat Burns, who trains Taylor. "We've been looking for that, we trained for that, we'd worked on all our movement. Now, to have to switch so close to the date of the fight, it's not the best thing."

But Burns said it's all apart of the learning process that every young fighter has to go through.

"Jermain was really, really looking forward to fighting Barbosa or someone of that caliber because we knew it's a step-up," said Burns. "And what's important here though is that you can't have a mental letdown and think that this guy you're fighting is a step down. He's not. He just came back off beating Dante Craig and knocking him out. The guy is still a threat.

"Along with the physical development and the boxing development, there has to be a mental development in the sport and a mental toughness about yourself. And this is a good test for Jermain mentally."

Along with the distraction of a new opponent, is the challenge of making sure that Taylor wasn't overwhelmed by the demands of his time back home. The downside to all the attention and notoriety a homecoming fight can bring is well... all the attention and notoriety that a homecoming fight can bring.

"He's been there once and it was not a distraction," insisted Burns. "Everything is all business with Jermain. The way we run our camp we're on such a time schedule that we're not five minutes late for anything. It's a military-type operation, he's not just going in there, it's going to be all business. Yes, he'll play to the fans and he's doing his radio interviews, but everything is scheduled so that it does not interfere with him at all."

And according to Mark Vaz, who helps manage Taylor's career, the reception in Little Rock has been positive.

"It's been terrific, it really has. A ton of phone calls, Jermain's business manager is out here and he's a well known sports guy and he's gotten a ton of calls," Vaz said. "The media has been very helpful, we've been on the six o'clock and eleven o'clock news pretty much every day since we've been here. It's been excellent. I mean everywhere we've gone people stop us on the street that have recognized us and asking us about the fight. I think we'll do very well."

And Taylor, who's now 14-0, can't wait to perform in front of his people.

"He's thrilled, he really is," Vaz says. "He's been bouncing off the walls in the gym. He's so happy to be here. He's mentally so glad to be here on a real upswing and Jermain does his best when he's happy and having fun."

This will be Taylor's second outing of 2003. On January 30th, Taylor iced veteran Lionel Ortiz in two rounds in Miami, Florida. Primera, a Venezuelan, has only lost to fighters with solid records: a 12-round decision to Joachim Alcine (12-0) last May, an eight-round decision loss to Luis Callazo (18-1) last March, an eight round loss to Germain Sanders (8-0) along with a draw with Marlon Haynes (4-0-1). An interesting sidenote to this fight is that his latest knockout victim Craig, was an Olympic teammate of Taylor in 2000.

"I was good friends with Dante, me and Dante were great friends, actually," recalled Taylor, when asked of his relationship with Craig.

For Taylor, this is a homecoming but it's also a business trip. This bout is taking place at the Statehouse Convention Center, which holds about 3,600

fans. This is a prelude to bigger and better things for the young middleweight prospect.

"I feel like I'm right on schedule, I'm not going too slow, I'm not going too fast. I have no complaints, I love my team, I love everybody," said Taylor, when asked about his development. As for his professional timetable for fighting for a world title "I'm going to say a year. Actually, a lil' under a year because I train so hard and I feel like I'm ready for whatever. I feel like I'm a horse and I'm ready to run, I just want to go out there and just run. I want to see what I get."

PATRIOTS

Lou DiBella, who is promoting this show, has given a 100 tickets to the Little Rock Air Force Base along with showing a tape delay broadcast of his 'Monday Night Fights' to the Armed Forces Radio and Television.

FIGHT CARD

OK, so here it is, after a lot of concern and consternation, this here is your inaugural 'Monday Night Fights' bout sheet: Rosendo Alvarez against

Bebis Mendoza for the WBA lt. flyweight title, Angel Manfredy facing Moises Pedroza, heavyweight prospect Derek Bryant against Erick Kirkland and Taylor against Marcos Primera.

D-MICH

OK, so it looks like WBO lt. heavyweight titlist Dariusz Michalczewski has devoured some more Roy Jones' leftovers by stopping Derrik Harmon in nine rounds this past weekend in Germany. When does he take on Clinton Woods, Ricky Frazier and Otis Grant?

FINAL FLURRIES

Is jr. welterweight Terrance Cauthen as boring as I think? He makes Cory Spinks (Stynx) look like Matthew Saad Muhammad.... Jose Aguiniga barely survived the 4-3 Gilberto Bolanos in an eight round split decision. Aguiniga, an Oxnard native, is a hard-nosed young fighter but he has some defensive deficiencies and he may want to drop down below the bantamweight level for the time being... Is there anything in boxing going on without Judd Burstein?