by Cliff Rold
No matter the year, in the waning days of any there are some things in boxing that are certain, categories and honors that were none the moment they were witnessed. The Fight of the Year is often of those things.
When Richard Steele stepped in and waved off Julio Cesar Chavez-Medrick Taylor with two seconds to go in 1990, he waved off all other pretenders to Fight of the Year honors that year as well. In 2005, the final bell for Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo was also the closing bell on anything else contending for the year’s finest battle.
2010 was not one of those years.
2010 is going to be one of those years where the “Fight of the Year” emerges from a slow consensus, a year with lots of good choices but nothing that can’t be argued against. In total, that worked out as a very good thing for fight fans.
There might not have been a singular all-time great rumble but there was a depth of real quality by year’s end and a steadiness to it all. In a year where the capital “s” Superfights at Welterweight and Heavyweight blew up in clouds of empty rhetoric and brazen disregard for the fans, it fell on the rest of the game to provide the thrills and chills that make it all worth it.
The rest of the game obliged, building to a crescendo of activity in the later part of the year that allowed so many of the lesser parts of the year to be swept away in a torrent of leather, sweat, and blood.
The BoxingScene.com staff voting ultimately looked a little farther back than the crescendo of the grand finale. It also looked lower on the scale than the sport has looked since Humberto Gonzalez lost a pair of “Fight of the Year” winners in the 1990s.
A tip of the cap is in order for the 2010…
Fight of the Year: Giovanni Segura KO8 Ivan Calderon
Keep your Ohio State-Michigan, your Lakers-Celtics, your Dodgers-Yankees. There is no rivalry in sport that delivers as often as Mexico versus Puerto Rico inside the squared circle. This Jr. Flyweight classic personified so many of the reasons why.
Entering the ring as the reigning lineal king at 108 lbs., the 2000 Puerto Rican Olympian Ivan Calderon was undefeated, a master titlist in boxing’s two smallest divisions since 2003. With only 6 knockouts in 35 contests, Calderon’s speed, footwork, defense, and combinations made him one of the game’s most skilled craftsmen.
His challenger, a once-beaten Giovanni Segura had avenged that lone defeat the way he won most of his then 26 fights: by brutal stoppage. Segura could be counted on to take two to give one, confident that eventually the numbers taken would dwindle and he would be the lone man left dishing out. Segura’s willingness to chase victory on Calderon’s turf in Puerto Rico only added to the drama.
Calderon entered with the Ring Magazine and WBO belts, Segura with the WBA strap. Only one would leave with all of the above. Described precisely by staff writer Ryan Burton in the voting, the fight would provide “great back and forth action with Segura the cat chasing Calderon the mouse on the road in a 24 foot ring.” As reported at BoxingScene:
The suspense of a match between pure boxer and rugged puncher began at the opening bell.
Calderon, four inches shorter at 5’0, began moving backwards as Segura charged to start round one. Holding the right arm of Segura inside, Calderon allowed referee Jose Rivera to call the break and then began to go to work. Flicking his southpaw right jab, Calderon peppered Segura with rights and lead left hooks while slipping away and blocking lead left hooks from Segura. Catching a Segura switching between orthodox and southpaw stance, Calderon rocked his man with thirty seconds to go and applied a few more precise blows before the bell.
Segura was already at mid-ring when the bell clanged to start round two and was heavy to the body of Calderon right away. Calderon used his elbows to stem the flow of hooks to the belly and shot short lefts and rights to the face. A wild power attempt from Calderon gave Segura a chance to land something big but Calderon held on before any damage could be done. As he had been in the first, Segura was warned in the second for punches straying below the belt. Calderon gave him nothing else in the frame.
Again in round three, Segura was already in the middle of the ring while Calderon was only easing from his stool at the bell. A glancing right from Segura got through near the halfway mark but Calderon popped right back with a right. His gloves all but glued to his head in defense, Calderon sent the wide Segura attempts he didn’t slip entirely sliding off his gloves, wisely clinching in spots when Segura got close.
Already easily ahead three rounds, brilliant might be understating the performance of Calderon in a thrilling fourth round. With just more than a minute to go, Segura landed a right from the southpaw stance he’d favored most of the night and appeared to catch the attention of Calderon. Letting loose with both hands, Segura poured everything he had into a relentless assault while Calderon began poking through the openings created with chopping counters while blocking and making Segura miss. Backing Segura up, Calderon increased his output and carved the Mexican up with surgical mastery. Segura went to the corner winded and frustrated.
The balance of brilliance would shift dramatically in the fifth round as the pressure of Segura overwhelmed the defense of Calderon. Eating rights and body shots in the corner, Calderon was in survival mode. Falling to the floor in the corner, Calderon’s was favored by a slip ruling and he kept his feet, only barely, down the stretch as the larger man imposed his will.
Complaining in the corner about a thumb to the eye, it looked like Calderon might not come out for round six but he did and then some. Segura battered away early but Calderon found his wind and had Segura stunned with a wicked counter left. Fighting often at close quarters, both men let loose with both hands, Calderon a step ahead in connects but Segura landing whatever he could on the flesh available.
The pace slowed considerably from the previous three rounds in the seventh and it played to Calderon’s advantage, the slickster able to move and land in spots as he seemed to put a round in the bank. It would be the last deposit he made on his side of the scoring.
Both eyes showing swelling, Calderon stayed near the ropes early in the eighth and looked exhausted. Segura seized the moment and went downstairs. Calderon tried to scoot away, applying the occasional counter, but Segura would give him no room. He stayed going to the body, a left to the belly folding Calderon forward in the corner and a right cracking off his side as Calderon melted to the canvas. Sitting on one knee, Calderon made no effort to rise as Ramirez tolled “eight, nine, ten” on his title reign at 108 lbs. at 1:34 of round eight.
Segura’s arms were raised, a new Jr. Flyweight king crowned, while Calderon was left to wonder if the heights could be scaled again with legs getting no younger at 35. It was the best of fistic drama, action, and story and proof there can never be enough Mexico versus Puerto Rico in boxing.
Runner-Up: Amir Khan UD12 Marcos Maidana
The late rush of 2010 action gave Segura-Calderon plenty of run for its money with this Jr. Welterweight scrap on December 11th making one hell of a last minute case. Khan, the WBA 140 lb. titlist, entered the ring with little doubt about his skill, speed or star power but plenty of doubt about his chin.
Doubters forgot to take into account the former British Olympian’s enormous fighting heart. Jake Donovan provided the coverage:
The general consensus going into the fight was that Khan would box and Maidana would brawl. However, it was the lanky Brit who made his presence felt early, scoring with a right and left to the body that floored Maidana in the opening round. The Argentinean beat the count, but winced in pain the entire time as well as on his way back to the corner.
From there, the table was set for a shootout, much to the pleasure of those who feared that Khan would try to turn a fight into a boxing match…
…it was clear that Maidana needed something dramatic to happen in order to win the fight. It nearly happened in the tenth, a round that perhaps Khan will one day look back and turn to as the greatest gut check of his career.
No knockdowns were scored, but it was the very definition of a 10-8 round as Maidana battered him from beginning to end. A right hand began the rally, causing Khan’s right leg to kick out from underneath him. Maidana went on the attack, unloading at will though unable to put away the Brit, who managed to regain his legs by rounds end.
Khan would keep those legs in the final two rounds, keeping his feet no matter the Maidana assault and proving to the world that, even if his chin might never be granite, there could be no further question of his owning every other ingredient of a champion.
Honorable Mention: More fights than these earned honorable mention and no slight is intended towards anything misses…One of many late year classics saw Mexico’s Juan Manuel Marquez come off the floor in round three to surgically carve up the always thrilling Michael Katsidis in nine rounds to keep the lineal Lightweight crown…One week later, Humberto Soto held onto his WBC belt in the same division in an even better Lightweight war, decisioning Urbano Antillon over 12 rounds in the very definition of an alley fight…Arguably the leader at the halfway mark of the year, Mikkel Kessler scoring a rousing decision win at home in Denmark in April over Carl Froch remains the finest hour of the Super Six Super Middleweight tournament…A May Bantamweight draw between IBF Bantamweight titlist Yohnny Perez and Abner Mares helped let in even more fans in the U.S. about what just might be boxing’s finest current weight class…Antonio Escalante posted a ten-round nod over Miguel Roman in February that would end up ESPN’s best aired brawl in 2010…In September, a game Ricky Burns hit the deck hard in the first round only to rise and inspire the Scottish faithful over the next eleven rounds, scoring a decision for a 130 lb. belt over undefeated Rocky Martinez…Finally, Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam scored the WBA interim Middleweight crown with a decision over Avtandil Khurtsidze in a French thriller.
For more BoxingScene.com Year End Awards 2010:
Round, Robbery, & Event
Upset
Comeback
Prospect: TBA
Knockout: TBA
Fighter: TBA
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel, the Yahoo Pound for Pound voting panel, and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
