Inducted on November 11, 2010
Upon finishing his residency in Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1985, Dr. Coletta moved to Atlantic City, NJ where he began working as a Ringside Physician for professional boxing in 1988.
He has worked numerous high-profile and championship fights including Holyfield/Foreman, Barkley/Dwan, Morrison/Mercer, DeLaHoya/Rivera, Lewis/Golata, Holyfield/Rachman, Gatti/Mayweather, Gatti/Ward (II & III), Hopkins/Pavlick and many more. Dr. Coletta quickly rose to the position of Chief Ringside Physician for the State of New Jersey and is currently the candidate for chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of that state.
Dr. Coletta is the current President of the AAPRP (the American Association of Professional Ringside Physicians) and was voted the “Ringside Physician of the Year” by that organization in 2003. Two years later, he received the same award from the COMBATT organization in Newark, NJ.
He authored the pocket manual for the AAPRP Ringside Medicine Certification Program and has been a frequent speaker at various boxing medical conferences, both in New Jersey for the Athletic Control Board, and throughout the country and Mexico.
Among his many presentations are “The Roles and Responsibilities of a Ringside Physician”, “The EMT and Paramedic at Ringside” and the AAPRP ringside safety course. Dr. Coletta assisted Mr. Larry Hazzard, former NJ State Boxing commissioner, with drafting the Unified Rules for Mixed Martial Arts and is currently on the Medical Advisory Board for the Association of Boxing Commissions.
Dr. Coletta was recently published in the October 2009 Clinics in Sports Medicine for his chapter on medical emergencies in boxing. Dr. Coletta continues to serve his commission almost daily by reviewing and approving the multitude of medical tests (including ringside officials) for all of the boxing contests in the State of New Jersey.
He resides with his wife, Annette, and two children, Alexandra and Michael in Marmora, NJ (USA).