by Cliff Rold

The contracts are signed.  The trash talking has begun.  On August 28th, one of the sports finest sweet scientists will face off against one of its most destructive bombers with two sanctioning body titles and the only serious claim to the lineal World championship on the line.

Puerto Rico versus Mexico is always a pretty good sign going into a fight, right?  This one has that too.  Granting they both make weight, they will scale a maximum, combined, 216 lbs.  For those who love the sport at its pure best, it’s a Heavyweight clash even if it takes both men to make that division.

World Jr. Flyweight champion and WBO beltholder Ivan Calderon (34-0-1, 6 KO) is set to face off with WBA titlist Giovanni Segura (24-1-1, 20 KO).  At 108 right now, there is nothing more which could be asked for.  It is the absolute best the division can offer.

It’s also more than that.

This will be the first unification battle at 108 since 2003 draw between Rosendo Alvarez and Victor Burgos and only the second unification of any kind below 115 lbs. since Ricardo Lopez and Rosendo Alvarez clashed in 1998.

Is this a year of the little men?  Combined with, among other notable action, this year’s first-in-generations unification clash at Bantamweight (Fernando Montiel-Hozumi Hasegawa) and Pongsaklek Wonjongkam’s upset win over Koki Kameda to regain the lineal Flyweight crown, Calderon-Segura provides the latest argument that it might be.

The fight alone has enough of its own intrigue away from the bigger picture.  It will be a critical night in the career of the now 35-year old Calderon.  Long regarded as one of the most skilled fighters in the game, Calderon hasn’t entered a fight he was realistically perceived as having a chance to lose since the rematch with Hugo Cazares in 2008.

Rodel Mayol, who he drew and decisioned against in two cut-shortened contests in 2009, went on to prove more notable after their contest than he appeared heading in, winning and losing the WBC belt.  Segura is something different, a clear top opponent before the opening bell.

5-0, all by stop, since his lone and immediately avenged decision defeat to Cesar Canchila in 2008, Mexico’s Segura has been among boxing’s most improved in the last couple years.  His power has been evident all along but his technical effectiveness in delivering it has improved.  He hasn’t won anywhere but inside the distance since defeating future titlist Carlos Tamara in 2006.  At 28, Segura may have the legs to give the sort of pursuit to the aging Calderon no one has since “Iron Boy” survived some vicious late onslaughts from Cazares in their first encounter in 2007.

Will Calderon have the legs to survive that sort of trouble on the 28th?  What if, like Calderon’s most recent opponent, Jesus Iribe, Segura can drop the master boxer early?  Will Calderon respond with the same calm he did there knowing just how much more dangerous Segura will be?

These are questions not only worth asking but worth finding out the answers to.  Oh, and let’s not forget the homefield advantage for Calderon at the Coliseo Mario 'Quijote' Morales in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.  As recently as his last fight, Segura was still being trained by Javier Capetillo, a fixture in his corner during a current win streak hosted entirely in Mexico.  Location matters since Capetillo is still suspended in California and…

That’s the same man who trained Antonio Margarito to his brutal stoppage of Puerto Rican icon Miguel Cotto in 2008.  Questions about that win after Margarito was caught trying to load his gloves before a loss to Shane Mosley in 2009 are fairly and particularly loud amongst the pro-Cotto contingent.  Could ties to Capetillo make for an even more hostile crowd?

Whether or not it turns out to be a great, or even good, fight will be determined in the ring on the 28th.  The ingredients are there.  The best boxing can do is offer up contests with potent narratives between the best in its given divisions.

This is some of the best boxing can do.

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com