By Cliff Rold, photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank

Rewind the calendar just a little, ever so slightly, and the top of the Bantamweight class looks much different than it does today.  Bantamweight, generally, was in a different place.  The differences were in fluidity, anticipation; the top was static.

In the spring of 2008, Hozumi Hasegawa and Wladimir Sidorenko were largely seen as the two best in the world at 118 lbs.  Based in Japan and Germany respectively, it could be safely assumed that the imagination would be the only place to answer, which was the better man.

Sidorenko was the first to fall, outfoxed twice by the talented Anselmo Moreno for the WBA honors.  Hasegawa would continue to win for a couple more years before being deposed.  As 2010 ends, Hasegawa has successfully transitioned to the Featherweight class.

Sidorenko remains at Bantamweight.  More to the point, Sidorenko (22-2-2, 7 KO) has returned to Bantamweight.

He’s got his work cut out for him.  Unheralded by the larger fight community throughout his title run, Sidorenko finds himself cast into a main event in the U.S. this Saturday.  The cancellation of the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Pawel Wolak contest has elevated a bout billed as for the interim WBA Bantamweight title.

Let’s put aside the ridiculous idea of Sidorenko fighting for an interim version of the belt he lost.

Actually, let’s not.

As a brief aside, Moreno has defended seven times since defeating Sidorenko, faced and defeated his mandatories, and last fought in August.  Boxing’s title picture is just so mind numbingly stupid.

Brief aside ended.  Rant closed.  Back to a pretty good scrap this Saturday.

Sidorenko is making his U.S. debut.  He is not favored to win.  Few fighters facing former Flyweight titlist Nonito Donaire (24-1, 16 KO) within a reasonable limit on the scale would be.  But…

At 34, Sidorenko is positioned for one hell of a “but.”  Bantamweight is riding a combination of depth and matchmaking missing for the better part of a generation.  Sidorenko has a chance, with a win Saturday, to garner a greater global appreciation and recognition than has been the case to now.

It’s a good time to be a Bantamweight.  The question for Sidorenko is whether it’s still a good time for him to be a Bantamweight; whether his time is up just as things get hot.

Following the second loss to Moreno in 2009, Sidorenko was out of the ring from May 2009 to August of this year.  Part of that layoff could be chalked up to the problems experienced by stalwart German promotional force Universum.  There was also, simply, well earned respite.  After an amateur tenure with almost 300 wins, including a 2000 Olympic Flyweight Bronze Medal, Sidorenko embarked on a commendable run of stiff competition from early in his paid run.

By 2003, in his twelfth fight, he was already tangling with experience veteran Giovanni Andrade.  From May 2004 to May 2009, a span of eleven fights, Sidorenko took the “0” from future titlists Joseph Agbeko (if in disputed fashion) and Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym; drew twice with future titlist Ricardo Cordoba; outworked veteran four-division former titlist Leo Gamez; and came up short twice with Moreno.

He didn’t win them all, might not even have earned all the wins he managed along the way, but tough opposition has a way of adding to the columns next to “W” eventually.  Occasionally a fighter makes a run that can’t be fully respected until it is done, until the grades are in on the men faced.

Viewed now, after Agbeko started on what continues to be a memorable run in the U.S., after Kratingdaenggym appeared for at least a while to be the best in the world at Jr. Featherweight, as Moreno just keeps on winning, the depth of competition jumps off the page.

Add Donaire to the list, stack the two ledgers next to each other, and wonder aloud if Donaire should be as perceptually favored as he is in a division where he has yet to prove a place.

The answer, in the ring Saturday, might be yes.  Donaire passes the eye test with a combination of speed and pop and style.  While his opposition and relative inactivity has been disappointing to some degree since his 2007 stoppage of Vic Darchinyan, he still had that stoppage.  He also has a competitive cut stoppage of now-reigning Flyweight titlist Moruti Mthalane, and a knockout of rugged contender Raul Martinez.

It would be less than surprising if Sidorenko came up with a different answer. Sidorenko is one of those unfortunate fighters, lost in seas of beltholders, who win the right fights and face the right opponents at the wrong time. 

And then, all of a sudden, the perfect opponent and the right stage open up.

Saturday night, the only timing Sidorenko need worry about is the 47 minutes, bell to bell, it takes to work through a twelve round main event.         

Weekly Ledger

But wait, there’s more…

Cliff’s Notes…

While understanding where the hypocrisy would lie in Manny Pacquiao not giving up a few pounds for a third Juan Manuel Marquez fight, it would be unfair to apply a different standard to this situation than others.  If Marquez wants to challenge for a Welterweight belt, he should come up regardless of Pacquiao’s weight…And if Pac moves up anymore, he should quit inventing new Manny-weights to do it at.  Winning phony belts like the Jr. Middleweight bauble he just picked up should be beneath someone of Pacquiao’s stature…That said, the real solution is the one no one is asking for: weigh in the day of the fight.  Period…Not that it matters.  Pacquiao looks destined for a showdown with what’s left of Shane Mosley.  Is it still “Sugar” or is this aged version more “Splenda” Shane?  One supposes there are people who will pay to find out…On a separate note, Dereck Chisora is starting to talk a little on the way to his pending challenge for the Heavyweight crown against Wladimir Klitschko.  Will anyone be listening after the fight is over?

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel, the Yahoo Pound for Pound voting panel, and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com