By Cliff Rold
Whether they fight sooner, later, or never at all, as long as they keep winning Fernando Montiel and Cristian Mijares will be the two premiere names in any debate about the best Jr. Bantamweight in the world. The best case scenario is a showdown to decide supremacy, but Boxing has a funny way of stretching out the anticipation for best cases.
In the interim, fans often get a taste of what’s on tap Saturday night at the Plaza De Toros El Paseo in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The WBO 115 lb. titlist Montiel (36-2-1, 27 KO) of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico will attempt to make the seventh defense of his second title reign against fellow Mexican Luis Maldonado (37-2-1, 28 KO).
It’s a fight Montiel is and should be heavily favored to win.
Sometimes winning isn’t the only thing.
Building big fights is often complicated at the negotiating table, but the road to the table is less than rocket science. One of the most common ways to compare fighters that appear headed towards each other is by way of comparison through common opposition. Less eloquently, it’s establishing bragging rights by way of saying “We both fought that guy and I whooped that ass worse than you.”
In political terms, it’s Boxing as proxy war. Proxy wars, boiled down, happen when major powers use third parties as substitutes for their own animosity. Chosen specifically for this end or not, Maldonado is a proxy on the road to a potential showdown between Mijares (35-3-2, 14 KO) and Montiel.
What gives Maldonado any uniqueness that other recent and, really, better opposition doesn’t have? After all, Maldonado has suffered two eighth-round knockout losses in his last six fights, both IBF Flyweight title shots against Vic Darchinyan and then Nonito Donaire. Considering that Donaire was his last fight, there would appear to be little gained from a win over him on Saturday.
Little to gain until, that is, a little extra digging is done on his record. Four months before his loss to Vic Darchinyan in June 2006, Maldonado would be the last man to do any other than lose to Mijares since 2002. In fact, through twelve rounds, he held the fight even at 115-115 on two cards and carried a win on the third by a score of 118-115. When he steps into the ring with Montiel, he’ll become the notable common foe for both men, something one has to assume lingers in the back of Montiel’s mind.
The fight won’t be aired on U.S. TV, but the avid fans that a fight like Mijares-Montiel would cater to have already begun to buzz. A knockout win over Maldonado would be a point of argument in Montiel’s favor in building to what could become the biggest fight at 115 lbs. in over a decade. The results of Montiel-Maldonado in the Sunday morning fight news won’t go unnoticed.
And that says nothing of the fans in Mexico. As evidenced two weeks ago, and on HBO’s March doubleheader featuring Nate Campbell-Juan Diaz upset, tickets are moving in Mexico right now in a way they haven’t since the heyday of Julio Cesar Chavez. Those fans will see the fight live, they’ll probably hear about the common opponent factor, and they’ll pay attention. Put it altogether and what looks like an otherwise standard time-killer title defense winds up with at least a little more weight than it would normally have.
Of course, longtime fans know that common opponent comparisons are as flawed as they come in Boxing. If they really meant anything, George Foreman would have knocked out Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, AND Muhammad Ali. That doesn’t mean comparisons still don’t happen or are not part of the fun. It’s what makes Montiel’s coming proxy war worth paying attention to.
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
