Ivan Calderon looks to try to reverse the inevitable?deterioration?when he faces relentless Giovani Segura in Mexicali, Baja California, in a rematch of their exciting 2010 shootout. Segura violently stopped Calderon last August in the 8th round of a brutal give-and-take affair that ended with Calderon on his knees, exhausted, as the ten-count was tolled. After a long career of skillful but dull performances, ?Iron Boy? finally seems ready for the scrap heap, and a repeat victory by Segura will surely keep Calderon there for good.
One of the cruelest little people to come around since Herve Villechaize in The Man With the Golden Gun, Segura, 26-1-1 (22), is always prepared for bloodletting. Few contemporary fighters wreak as much havoc between the ropes as Segura does. Like James Kirkland, Segura is one of the few southpaws?or switch-hitters?out there not looking to be cute. Indeed, in pure fighting terms, Segura, Bell, California, via Altamirano, Mexico, is one plug-ugly SOB. Unless his very public battle with the scale hollows him out, Segura enters the ring with all the advantages. In his last fight, Segura weighed 113 3/4 en route to a seventh-round TKO of Manuel Vargas in Baja California, and dropping back down to 108 pounds might be too taxing at this point.
A nifty southpaw with superb boxing skills, Calderon, 34-1-1 (6), no longer seems capable of holding off an opponent as rambunctious as Segura is in the ring. Little by little Calderon has diminished before our eyes, suffering cuts and knockdowns over his last few starts and struggling twice with the Walking Black Cloud of boxing, Rodel Mayol. A series of head-butt induced technical decisions a couple of years ago left Calderon, 35, bloody and perhaps lucky to keep his undefeated record for as long as he did.
In their first fight, Calderon, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, simply could not keep up with the less talented but far more insistent Segura. Round after round saw Segura wade in throwing hand grenades to the head and body. He backed Calderon up against the ropes consistently and went to work on the inside. For his part, Calderon willingly exchanged, but got the worst of it again and again. He landed some crisp shots but slowing Segura down is like trying to ward off a rogue wave with your bare hands. By the eighth round, Calderon was spent, and a final barrage left him on his knees, the bitter taste of defeat on his bloody lips for the first time in his career.
Unlike Calderon, Segura, 29, has never been anything but explosive in the ring. Defensively, Segura is as porous as a sieve, but Calderon does not hit hard enough to stop his momentum. Nothing less than a perfect effort will keep Sugura at bay and Calderon simply does not appear to have enough left to do that. In addition, Calderon faces a number of x-factors entering the Auditorio del Estado. Not only will Calderon be fighting a man who wore him down and left him gutted on the canvas in their first bout, but he will also have to fight on the road. Calderon has also been inactive since his knockout loss, while Segura faced Manuel Vargas last November. Psychological baggage rarely comes any heavier than this.
Within a round, perhaps, the narrative of the fight will be set. Either Calderon will summon up his best moves to keep Segura off-balance, or he will be forced into another firefight with a man who looks like the type who smokes cigarettes at a munitions plant. Look for Segura to use Calderon as a fuse for nine or ten rounds before scoring an explosive TKO late.
