Giovanni Segura’s Long A-Weighted Crack At The Big Time

By Jake Donovan

Big fights or big feasts.

It was barely a year ago when Giovanni Segura was ready to throw his hands in the air and shout, “To hell with the junior flyweight division.”

There had long existed a desire to face the division’s very best – namely Ivan Calderon, not only the lineal champ, but a legitimate pound-for-pound entrant and widely believed to be the very best pure boxer in the game today, even if he has lost a step or two in recent years.

But whenever a fight was offered that didn’t include Calderon or any of the division’s alphabet titlists, Segura would think to himself why he continued to shrink down to 108 lb, when he could be enjoying life a little more and still fight at a weight where he could maintain his massive punching power.

Fortunately, the free-swinging Mexican decided to stick around, fingers crossed that a big fight would eventually materialize. As luck would have it, everything that could go right in leading up to his championship showdown with Calderon this weekend fell perfectly into place.

The bout headlines a show that will be carried in the United States live via pay-per-view from Coliseo Mario Morales in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico (Saturday, 9PM ET/6PM PT).

For the most part, the event is been there, done that for Calderon. In successive years on this very weekend, the diminutive Puerto Rican faced and beat Hugo Cazares, taking the lineal championship in their first fight and successfully defending it in the very same arena in Puerto Rico 371 days later.

The weekend will serve quite a different purpose for Segura (24-1-1, 20KO), who has fought all of 18 rounds amidst the five-fight winning streak he rides into this weekend.

The closest Segura has come to a fight of this magnitude was when he stood by for a title fight with former French Olympic boxer Brahim Asloum that ultimately never materialized. The fallout instead led to another opportunity – rather than fight off American airwaves on the other side of the world, why not lobby for a slot on the bigger event scheduled for that same day, which was Antonio Margarito’s career-best win over Miguel Cotto.

Segura received his wish, but the night didn’t quite turn out as planned, dropping a wide decision to late replacement Cesar Canchilla in the chief support of the pay-per-view telecast.

No excuses were made at the time, though in the buildup to their rematch eight months later, Segura vented with his frustration over having to wait nine months for a fight with Asloum, a world class southpaw, only to wind up fighting a scrappy orthodox fighter on short notice.

Of course with talk like that, the onus was on Segura to deliver in their TV Azteca-televised rematch last February. He would in a big way, scoring knockdowns in the first and second rounds before putting him away in the fourth – or more accurately, after the fourth, as the referee never heard the bell to end the round, allowing Segura to finish off what was already wounded prey.

The bout was the first of five straight he would win in the wake of his lone loss, all by knockout and all taking place in Mexico.

What wasn’t included in the bunch was a bout that truly left him licking his chops, despite the fact that his promoter – Top Rank – either promoted or co-promoted all of the alphabet titlists (and lineal champion, in Calderon’s case).

It was around the time of his makeshift pay-per-view headliner last summer when Segura decided enough was enough, that either his promoter delivers Calderon, or begins shopping for bigger fights at flyweight and beyond.

He instead received more televised slots (Telefutura, TV Azteca and Televisa) and the promise that good things were in store for the future if he could wait just a little longer.

Not that any of the other titlists were exactly racing to flock to the two-fisted bomber, but it was Calderon who remained affixed in his sights. Unfortunately for Segura, his main target was forced to spend 2009 mired in unfinished business, struggling to a technical decision draw in their first fight before taking the rematch, with both fights shortened due to headbutts.

Once 2010 rolled around, Segura went from hopeful to pessimistic as Calderon’s handlers didn’t even bother to conceal their plans of fighting anyone but him, it seemed.

First came a rare fight on regional cable rather than the pay-per-view circuit on which Calderon has remained for nearly his entire title ride, spanning seven years and two weight classes. The June fight came against Jesus Iribe, who – save for a surprise knockdown early in the fight – was never a threat to win.

The perceived tune-up was a little easier to swallow when considering that Calderon suffered a rough 2009 campaign from a medical perspective. Not quite as easy to swallow was the fact that his next opponent was already being lined up, in alphabet mandatory Johnriel Casimero.

Segura was already bracing for the reality that a tour at flyweight or higher was more likely than a dream match with Calderon, even taking an above-the-weight stay busy fight earlier this year just to test the waters and see how his body reacted to the extra weight.

A planned title defense against Manuel Vargas was scheduled for earlier this month and believed to be the last time Segura would appear at that weight before moving up and giving up hope for his dream fight to ever materialize.

Then, as luck would have it, he got the call.

It didn’t come at a desirable time. He was offered – and accepted – the fight with just more than a month’s notice, giving him little time to properly train for a fighter of Calderon’s size (or lack thereof), style and stellar boxing ability.

The training tale is not only familiar, but now a recurring theme. For the third time in as many years, he now enters a fight on short notice against an opponent who stylistically is the exact opposite for which he previously trained.

Segura could’ve pulled a David Haye, huffing and puffing but then coming up with a list of excuses and backing out once it comes time to finally make your dream fight a reality.

He could’ve also adopted the division jumping ways of promotional stable mates Fernando Montiel and Nonito Donaire, who seem to fight in a different division and for a different interim alphabet belt every fight (although the two are now appear to be on a collision course to face one another).

But when the fight for which you’ve demanded for as long as you’ve been a factor in the junior flyweight division finally materializes, you jump at the opportunity regardless of the circumstances under which it was offered.

That’s what real fighters do. That’s what Giovanni Segura has done, with this weekend’s major headliner of big little men proof enough that his decision to refrain from adding weight was indeed well worth the wait.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .