By Cliff Rold
It’s never a good sign when a fighter’s best wins over a pair of years come not in his own bouts but in the bouts of rivals. World Jr. Flyweight king Ivan Calderon has been the rare exception. It’s not hard to make a case for the miniature boxing marvel as still, even at 35, as among the best fighters in the world.
It has, though, become harder.
This Saturday, Calderon returns from almost nine months off for a bout with journeyman Jesus Iribe (16-6-5, 10 KO). If he wins, he’s headed for a mandatory against Filipino Johnriel Casimero (14-0, 8 KO). While men like Fernando Montiel, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, and Sergio Martinez are fighting notable fights against well received challenges, a Calderon who belongs with them in terms of displayed career talent is clearly leaps behind them in foes.
It wasn’t the same problem a few years ago. Jr. Flyweight was never going to provide the platforms those larger men have found, but it did provide a serious rival to push him.
In 2007, the 2000 Puerto Rican Olympian Calderon rose from a lengthy run as WBO titlist at 105 lbs. to capture the 108 lb. honors from Mexico’s Hugo Cazares. It was, and remains, his defining performance.
Calderon’s boxing ability had never been in question. With fast feet, faster hands, and keen reflexes, the Puerto Rican was a purist’s delight even if all his fights weren’t exactly dramatic. What was missing was genuine danger heading into the ring, a sure test, and Cazares provided it. Coming off the floor and surging late to protect an early lead, Calderon showed off what pound for pound is really all about.
He showed off that, in a world where all men were created relatively physically equal, he would have few men as peers.
In defending against Juan Esquer in a tough outing, decisioning Nelson Dieppa, and then winning a cut shortened rematch with Cazares, Calderon continued to state that case between the strands. It was lamented by this scribe in the run up to Cazares II that the sad part of the rematch was that it didn’t build to any next big thing. Unification is exceedingly rare in the lower divisions so where would Calderon’s chances to further define himself come?
The question remains. Increasingly it appears the answer may be that it won’t come at all.
Calderon, faced with an awkward style match in two 2009 matches with Rodel Mayol, saw both bouts end early on accidental head clashes which left him gashed. Including the end of Cazares II, three straight contests have gone to the cards early. The first Mayol fight, ruled a draw after six, left Calderon with the lone blemish on an otherwise spotless resume of 33-0-1 with six stops.
The Mayol fights had been difficult even before the butts. The outcomes were enough to leave audiences wondering if Calderon, a fighter who can count on anything but power to win, was finally slipping.
His saving graces, the responses in his favor, have come since in the form of Mayol and Cazares and what they have done post Calderon. Mayol, albeit controversially, defeated the longest reigning beltholder at 108 in Edgar Sosa via stoppage just months after losing technical decision in the Calderon rematch.
Cazares had been much better. In doing so, he’s made the Calderon wins over him look much better as well. Since the second Calderon bout, Cazares has moved up to 115 and gone 4-0-1 en route to winning a WBA belt. Notable in those contests were unanimous decision over a still game Roberto Vasquez (a former 108 lb. beltholder) and two fights with Japan’s Nobuo Nashiro. Each a Fight of the Year candidate, Cazares drew in 2009 and then defeated Nashiro in May by the route.
Cazares has proven he remains one of the elite smaller men in the game. Calderon’s victories there, combined with multiple wins over current and former titlists across two weight divisions over the last decade, keep him in on the fringes of the conversation about the world’s best…but for how much longer?
Eventually, today overtakes yesterday in a boxing world which demands the question “what have you done for me lately.” Calderon has far more yesterday’s, in the ring, then tomorrow’s at this point so what he does. How he spends the remainder of his time near the top of his corner of the fistic world is thus an expenditure of valuable time. He can be maneuvered into moments that allow him to go out with a bang.
Or he can, as his current path suggests, go softly into that clichéd good night.
Late in their careers, other smaller men were still finding new mountains to climb. Mark Johnson, long avoided at Flyweight and Jr. Flyweight, produced two classics with Rafael Marquez and placed the first “L” on the mark of Montiel. Ricardo Lopez ended a record setting reign at 105 by winning a belt at 108 and adding three more championship scalps to his resume.
It’s too late to have a career as stacked as Michael Carbajal’s but even that Jr. Flyweight great went out with a miracle knockout of Jorge Arce.
For Calderon, what mountains exist aren’t there in the form of Iribe or Casimero, at least not on paper. A move to Flyweight for another belt or a unification showdown with brick-handed Mexican Giovanni Segura (24-1-1, 20 KO) are the sort of affairs which, in his twilight, could ensure Calderon be further defined for the best of what he’s been.
There is still time for those climbs to be embarked on. There probably isn’t much.
Weekly Ledger
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Post-Yankee Thoughts: https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=28351
Picks of the Week: https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=28415
Cliff’s Notes… The BWAA dinner weekend remains a fun trip. On the eve of Miguel Cotto-Yuri Foreman, debating over drinks until the wee hours was a hell of a way to get ready for the action…Prior to the start of last Saturday’s card, they played the first five or so rounds of Ali-Norton III on the stadium screens as a nod to the last Yankee event. The fight has not gotten less dull with time and that remains one of the most overrated rivalries in boxing history in terms of in-ring action. Still, pretty cool to look at on the grounds…David Haye’s silence is deafening…If Vitali Klitschko made anywhere near some of the numbers reported on this website this week for Albert Sosnowski, well, Sven Ottke was a star in Germany. Anything is possible…Thoughts and prayers go out to Jr. Welterweight Victor Cayo on the loss of his baby boy.
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
