By Cliff Rold

Whether it’s good for the sport or not, lighter weight fighters excelling in their individual weight classes doesn’t always pay off.  Maybe it’s too many belts; maybe short attention spans.  Whatever it is, the best hope for wealth and fame is often not to be the best Featherweight or Lightweight.  It is to exist in the parallel universe of ‘pound-for-pound.’

It’s where the money is fastest found.

Mexico’s Cristian Mijares (36-5-2, 15 KO), one year ago, was on one hell of a run in a Jr. Bantamweight division as hot as any in the sport.  He’d been on that run for a couple of years but, weighing only 115 lbs., he needed something more.  Wins over Katsushige Kawashima, Jorge Arce, Jose Navarro, and a unification win over Alexander Munoz were getting him there; Mijares was gaining traction as a potential impact player in the land of ‘what if everyone was the same size?’ 

Holding the WBC and WBA belts, he squared off with IBF titlist Vic Darchinyan, entering the favored man in a Showtime main event. 

Odds only count on paper.

Darchinyan dropped Mijares with a wicked uppercut in the first.  He kept hitting him after that.  Mijares ran out of resistance in round nine.

It was a bad loss but, given some distance and fresh wins, nothing which couldn’t be overcome.  Citing in part a difficulty in making weight, Mijares climbed the scale to Bantamweight.  He was immediately given the opportunity for renewed contention in the form of the Venezuelan-based WBA’s interim title.

Opportunity turned into a split decision loss to undefeated Venezuelan national Nehomar Cermeno (17-0, 10 KO) on March 14 of this year. 

The split decision probably should have gone unanimously to Mijares.  His head movement, jab, and short right were all effective, Cermeno missing more than he landed in return for much of the night.  To his credit, Cermeno was aggressive throughout and made a strong late rush.  Mijares weathered the storm in the ring but, even with the home field advantage one would suppose for Mijares in Mexico, didn’t find skill rewarded over will on the cards. 

Seen by few outside of Mexico, those who remembered Mijares on the losing end to Darchinyan could take nothing more from news of the Cermeno loss then, well, Mijares lost.  Pound for pound questions were long gone.  Two losses in a row threatened plain ol’ contention.

Luckily for Mijares, the scoring in the first bout was arguable enough to facilitate the rematch on tap this Saturday.  Again it will be seen largely in Mexico but this time the stakes are higher.  Last time, Mijares was trying to dust off a bad loss.

This time, still only 27, he may be trying to save a career.  And, as noted at BoxingScene earlier this week , he knows it. 

As popular as he is in Mexico, and he is a solid attraction back home, three losses in a row is hard for any fighter to overcome.  Mijares is a defensive specialist, a stylist, unlikely to ever compete in the Fight of the Year.  It’s not that he’s dull; he’s not.  His fights typically are high on volume punching and rapidly paced.  But the volume and pacing almost always means distance chess matches.   

Arturo Gatti could overcome three losses in a row because one never knew when a bomb might land.

Mijares isn’t Gatti. 

With his back to the wall, Mijares will enter the ring this weekend as just another Bantamweight.  He’ll need to be the better Bantamweight if he hopes to dare more again.

Fortune could smile on him with victory.  The same would be true for Cermeno.

Interim belts, and the WBA hands out plenty of them these days, usually lead to fights with outright beltholders.  In this case, the WBA title is held by Venezuela’s Anselmo Moreno (26-1-1, 8 KO).  With wins over former titlists Wladimir Sidorenko and Mahyar Monshipour since 2008, Moreno has shown himself of high quality. 

Focusing on Mijares here, avenging the Cermeno loss and possibly adding a win over Moreno is needed rehabilitation.

And it sets up intriguing possibilities.

Fellow Mexican Fernando Montiel (39-2-1, 29 KO) has already captured WBO gold at Bantamweight.  His third title, in his third weight class, Montiel has an interesting date in the fall with former U.S. Olympian and Flyweight titlist Eric Morel (41-2, 21 KO).  Win and he’ll be looking for a marquee name with some paycheck possibilities.  While they couldn’t make it happen when both held belts at 115, Montiel versus a renewed Mijares would be welcome at 118.

Bantamweight also holds a chance for revenge by proxy.  IBF titlist Joseph Agbeko (27-1, 22 KO) successfully defended against Darchinyan this year.  Mijares may not get a chance to undo his loss to Darchinyan but beating the man who beat the man who beat you has never been harmful.

Then of course there is the best fighter in the class. 

This author is not alone is seeing pound-for-pound type talent in WBC titlist Hozumi Hasegawa (27-2, 11 KO).  It is a sentiment certain to grow if Hasegawa can maintain the dominance he has displayed in nine title defenses to date.  There have been murmurs about bringing Hasegawa out of Japan.  Even if murmuring falls into a predictable silence, both of the Mijares wins over Kawashima came in the land of the rising sun and, unlike the WBO and IBF, the WBA has traction in Japan.  Unification would not be completely out of the question, nor would the chance to sniff the truly elite air again.

These are the things Mijares can think about if he wakes up a winner Sunday morning.
If he wakes up the defeated? 

Hey, even with three straight losses, it will mean only that Cermeno is pretty good.  Darchinyan is a proven force.  A Mijares loss won’t mean he’s a bad fighter, but…  
In a sport where fighters past the prospect level rarely fight more than two or three times a year, there isn’t much room for losing.  There can’t be.  It’s not fair to the winners stuck with the same high stakes, tight wire act the modern game demands.
Mijares was almost a pound for pound player.  Another loss and he’ll struggle to be almost relevant.

The Weekly Ledger

But wait, there’s more…

Cliff’s Notes…

Is there a more promising fight, not involving a Welterweight, for 2010 then the Chad Dawson-Glen Johnson winner versus Tavoris Cloud?  I’d lose sleep with ink to paper on that one…It is not true that Manny Pacquiao would have been on Shaq Vs. if Shaq could have made 299…Robert Guerrero says he’s open to unification with Rocky Martinez at 130?  Great.  Anyone who has ever seen one of Martinez’s wars can only hope it comes to pass…How come Floyd Mayweather’s sparring sessions always sound more interesting than most of his fights?  I’m not surprised to read about Money and Lamont Peterson putting on a good show.  Peterson will give Timothy Bradley all he can handle…Finally, congratulations and good luck to former IBF Light Heavyweight titlist Clinton Woods.  He has announced his retirement after his quality ring tenure.  While not a Hall of Fame type, it is the men like Woods who help to bring the greatness out in others.  The sport would never work without his like.

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