By Cliff Rold (photo by Tom Casino/ShowTime)

For the last couple of years, the Jr. Featherweight class has been a two-horse race.  Through three violent classics, Mexicans Israel Vasquez and Rafael Marquez have traded the World championship twice, producing a pair of stoppages, four knockdowns and, if the third fight holds up through the rest of 2008, consecutive Fights of the Year.  So memorable was their trilogy that the chance of a fourth consecutive meeting in 2009 lingers.

In many cases, regardless of the quality of the action, two name-branded fighters controlling the top of a class, and the money it provides, for a solid two years would generate some controversy.  It doesn’t in the case of the 30-year old reigning champion Vasquez (43-4, 31 KO) and the 33-year old Marquez (37-5, 33 KO) for a reason even simpler than the merits of their rivalry.

The thought of Vasquez-Marquez IV doesn’t generate any negative reaction because, so far, really, who the hell else would anyone want to see them fight?

Who else has earned a shot?

They’re questions which started to have an answer last June when 25-year old Puerto Rican Juan Manuel Lopez (23-0, 21 KO) obliterated Daniel Ponce De Leon (35-2, 31 KO) in a single round.  They’re questions which may have an even more clear answer after Friday night. 

With little mainstream attention but lots of hardcore interest, 28-year old Steve Molitor (28-0, 11 KO) of Ontario, Canada will put his IBF belt on the line against 32-year old Celestino Caballero (30-2, 21 KO) of Panama City, Panama.  For both men, it marks their sixth attempted title defense and first unification attempt.  It’s the sort of risk and reward scenario fight fans clamor for between two men who remain fairly obscure figures.

So obscure that their fight is the most quietly delivered unification clash on U.S. TV in years.

Molitor hasn’t had a significant presence on U.S. TV if any.  Caballero has but it’s been spotty. 

He was the first man to defeat De Leon on one of the old HBO Latino shows and he’s had some Telefutura showcasing.  In perhaps his largest exposure, he defeated Jorge Lacierva last August on the undercard of Vasquez-Marquez II and looked dull doing it.  On a night when he could have made a statement about facing the winner, he instead was a statement for the rubber match. 

To his misfortune, Caballero’s finest performance was nearly a world away; without U.S. TV it might just as well have been staged on Pluto.  In late 2006, Caballero traveled to Thailand and wiped out Somsak Sithchatchawal for the WBA belt in three lopsided rounds.  It was a performance which evoked memories of Tommy Hearns-Pipino Cuevas.  It at least found its way to YouTube in all its badly pixilated glory. 

Caballero hasn’t had a night like it since.  He needs one.  Molitor needs him to have one and win anyways.  It’s the recipe for a great fight.

They could do it easier of course, and that’s what makes this week’s ShoBox main event such a gem.  Regardless of the retarded state of Boxing’s sanctioning bodies, the belts they produce have economic value.  Fighters who wear them make a better living than those who don’t but, with sometimes four belts in each of seventeen divisions, making a living isn’t easily equated with the generation of great wealth.  To risk a belt without a serious payday on tap is dangerous economic business.

What that says about Molitor, Caballero, and their respective management is that a better living than most isn’t good enough.  These men want the opportunity for more and without a direct road to Vasquez’s World title they’re going to try to make a road through each other. 

Each will have their reasons to be confident.  

Caballero has a vast edge in experience, having faced not only Sithchatchawal and De Leon but also tough outs like Jose Luis Valbuena, Mauricio Pastrana, Lorenzo Parra and, in a decision defeat, the rugged Ricardo Cordoba.  Molitor has faced solid opposition as well, fighters like undefeated Michael Hunter and Fernando Beltran Jr., but his biggest advantage might come from turf.  His last five bouts have been at the 5,000 seat Casino Rama in Ontario.  This one will be too.

All of the storyteller elements will mean nothing if the fight flops.  The styles have to clash.  Molitor, a southpaw, gives up at 5’7 some 4-inches of height to the freakishly tall, right-handed Caballero and the chance that he could spend the evening eating jabs and pot shots from distance exists.  However, both fighters have shown the ability to fight going backwards and forwards so it’s unlikely to dissolve into such dull terrain, especially given the stakes.

There is a great example in recent history of two fighters, outside the bubble of Boxing stardom, taking a risk like this and delivering for the fans.  It’s a fight with some striking similarities to Molitor-Caballero. 

In 2003 Leonard Dorin and Paul Spadafora had built decent followings but lingered well behind the more acclaimed and then-recognized World Lightweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.  In pursuit of something more, they made an opportunity with each other.  As Molitor-Caballero will take place on Showtime’s secondary ShoBox stage, Spadafora-Dorin took place on HBO’s Boxing After Dark.  As is the case in this Friday’s fight, WBA and IBF belts were on the line.  Dorin gave up some five inches in height and fought on Spadafora’s home turf in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

Together they put on one hell of a fight, one of this decade’s lost classics. 

At the end of twelve rounds, an unpopular draw was announced with many viewers favoring the aggressive Dorin.  From a sympathetic groundswell, Dorin made his opportunity where there had not been one.  He never got Mayweather but he did secure a showdown in Atlantic City two fights later with Arturo Gatti. 

Sure, Dorin lost to Gatti for a Jr. Welterweight belt on a monstrous body blow in the second round, but he got his shot at bigger money and acclaim.  It’s the most any fighter can ask for, the chance to win or lose on a grand stage.  Spadafora undoubtedly would have had his shot as well, but instead found legal trouble and time behind bars, in part for shooting his girlfriend, before resuming his career full-time in 2007. 

A shot is what this week’s fight is all about.  Molitor and Caballero both want one, a line of sight towards the brass ring and the chance to snare it as their own.  They earn the respect of fans in taking the right.  If they deliver, the winner will have truly earned the right to call Vasquez’s name.

And Boxing fans will have something else to think about at Jr. Featherweight besides another chapter of Vasquez-Marquez.

The Weekly Ledger

Cliff’s Notes…

Evander Holyfield-Nicolay Valuev is sad, pathetic junk.  Period.  That’s the last words on that abortion from this corner until “is” becomes “was” after it’s over…Wladimir Klitschko-Hasim Rahman isn’t much better but as a replacement foe for Wlad, it’s not the absolute worst.  Heavyweight is that bleh…Speaking of Heavyweights, former Cruiserweight champion David Haye doesn’t look to be much of one yet.  The speed and fire are there, but the chin remains a target waiting to be fired through…In a perfect world, HBO would build their 2009 programming schedule around getting to Jermain Taylor-Mikkel Kessler and Kelly Pavlik-Arthur Abraham.  Three out of four may have some damage on them recently, but those are the best fights respectively at Super Middleweight and Middleweight right now, potential wars between still-young fighters in need of proving grounds.  It doesn’t hurt that the emergent winners make natural and well paying rivals for each other…Jorge Arce-Vic Darchinyan is in full build with the war of words underway.  Now it just needs a date, location and contract.  It’s not Darchinyan-Fernando Montiel but it only makes a potential all-belts-on-deck unification clash bigger in the long run.  Jr. Bantamweight is the Boxing gift that just won’t stop giving.

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