WBO light flyweight champion Ivan Calderon (34-0-1, 6 KO?s) - retained his title and kept his unbeaten record intact with a twelve round unanimous decision at the Theater of Madison Square Garden in an unexciting bout where the little Puerto Rican acted like he usually does, connecting with quick combinations and then darting out of trouble and slipping punches.
The taller and stronger Mexican Jesus Iribe (17-7-4, 10 KO?s) provided the only excitement of the evening when he dropped Calderon with a right straight in round two but the champion shook it off and out-boxed Iribe, whenever he decided to engage, the rest of the way.
Iribe is the same fighter who lost to then IBF champion Brian Viloria in Honolulu last year. Viloria in turn lost his title by a 12th round TKO to Colombia?s Carlos Tamara last December who then lost the title by a split decision to Luis Lazarte of A rgentina.
Unimpressed fans who want to see champions and challengers go after each other booed Calderon much of the time in the early rounds in particular but it didn?t seem to effect the champion who stuck to his usual game-plan of hit and not get hit.
In the end all three judges had Calderon a comfortable winner with two judges scoring it 118-109 and a third a closer 116-111.
20 year old-Filipino Johnreil Casimero (14-0, 8 KO?s) whose title shot at Calderon was announced by Calderon himself but subsequently called off faces Ramon Garcia Hirales (12-1-1, 8 KO?s) in La Paz, Mexico on July 3. His handler Sammy Gello-ani and international matchmaker Sampson Lewkowicz earlier announced that should Casimero retain his interim title he would get a shot at Calderon or if Calderon decides to move up in weight, he would be declared full champion.
Casimero won the WBO interim title with a spectacular 11th round TKO over fancied Cesar Canchila, dropping the lanky, hard-hitting, lanky Colombian five times en route to the stoppage.
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