On the undercard of the COTTO/CLOTTEY match up is a showdown whose outcome should be interesting to see. At 32 and 0, IVAN CALDERON is the KING of the Flyweights. This Puerto Rican phenom has held a portion of the WBO title for nearly a decade and has been skating through his opponents with grace and ease.
Upon turning pro in ’01 Calderon’s handlers must have already known that they had something special in their camp. *In his DEBUT they matched him with a journeyman who already had 14 bouts to his credit. Ivan KO’d him in the first round.
Four weeks later he fought a fighter with 23 fights and won an easy uanimous decision.
In Calderon’s 3rd bout his foe was competing in his 33rd fight against him; another unanimous decision victory for Ivan.
Twenty-night fights & twenty-nine victories later, IVAN CALDERON is king of the light flyweights.
Up until three years ago the Filipinos thought they had yet another super native son in RODEL MAYOL. Mayol shot out of the gate with 22 straight victories, 18 of them by KO. His overly aggressive power punching style was far too much for his 100 lbs. adversaries to battle against.
Yet, even boxers have their limits. Sometimes the training, diet & mental wear and tear can chisel away at a fighter’s arsenal. This may have been the case with Mayol. In his last 6 fights Mayol has been 3-3 and he’s been KO’d twice; not good.
Rodel Mayol is only 27 years of age yet, he may be needing to seriously consider finding an alternative means to make money. It’s sad, isn’t it? Twenty-seven years young and having to consider leaving your career for good!
Yet, on the other hand, maybe Calderon’s trainers are seeing a few cracks in their fighter’s armor as well. Perhaps they think MAYOL is too past his prime to inflict any danger on their man and that’s why they took the fight (?).
You never know – and (as Chris Berman says) THAT IS WHY THEY PLAY THE GAME!
