Probably the most interesting title fight from this coming weekend sees future Hall of Famer Ivan Calderon (35-2-1, 6) trying to roll back the clock and regain the WBO Minimumweight title as he faces current champion Moises Fuentes (15-1, 7).
In his prime Calderon was sensational. He was as slippery as they came defensively and yet able to land 3 or 4 punch combinations at will as he out classed opponent after opponent in impressive fashion. Whilst never a hard hitter he was incredibly skilled. Sadly however Calderon is not what he was, he's now a 37 year old who has not looked like a top level boxer in several years and in fact has lost much of what made him great.
Calderon's professional career started way back in 2001 (after having competed at the 2000 Olympic games) and a little over 2 years later he had claimed the WBO Minimumweight title by defeating the then champion Eduardo Ray Marquez. As the champion Calderon was amazing and made 11 successful defenses over the following 4 years.
Having been the stand out Minimumweight fighter of his generation, Calderon moved to Light Flyweight in 2007 and swiftly claimed the WBO title in his new weight by winning a decision over Hugo Fidel Cazares. As the WBO Light Flyweight champion Calderon looked less sensational, whether it was his age or just the opponents he was looking ever more beatable.
After making 6 successful defenses at Light Flyweight (and taking his record to an excellent 34-0-1, 6) Calderon was finally beaten in 2010 by the hard hitting and hugely exciting Giovani Segura in one of the fight of the year contenders. The following year Calderon would again lose to Segura, and this time Calderon looked like a shell of the fighter he had once bean and was no match at all for Segura.
Since the losses to Segura, Calderon has fought just once, struggling to a controversial victory over journeyman Felipe Rivas. Sadly for boxing fans the world over, Calderon looked like a completely spent fighter who many hoped would just hang them up and walk away from the sport before he took much more damage, sadly however he seems to be wanting to continue, maybe looking for one last hurrah.
Whilst Calderon is is a fighter who's career is coming to an end, the champion, Moises Fuentes is a fighter who is just emerging as a really serious fighter at Minimumweight. At 27 years old he's not only the younger fighter, but he's also the fighter who has taken much less overall punishment having fought just 84 combined rounds in 16 fights so far (compared to Calderon's 332 rounds in 38 contests). However unlike Calderon he'll never be described as much of a pure boxer.
When you think of Mexican boxers you think of hard hitting body punchers with questionable defense and big heart and to be honest Fuentes is exactly that. He's not a stand out fighter in terms of raw talent but he's a hard hitting and aggressively minded tough fighter who miraculously makes the 105lb division despite looking huge at it. In all honesty he's a bit of a beat with nasty shot on him (despite his record not showing him to be much of a puncher, he hits hard).
Fuentes really burst on to the scene last year when he won a split decision over the then WBO champion Raul Garcia in an excellent contest. Despite this being his "unearthing" in the boxing world, Fuentes had actually been unlucky earlier in the year to lose his unbeaten record to Juan Hernandez .
Since winning the title from Garcia, Fuentes has defended it once, blowing out the over matched Julio Cesar Felix inside a round thanks to several devastating body shots. Now he looks to score another notable victory by not only beating but retiring Calderon and I think he will. Fuentes has a similar (not the same but similar) traits to Segura. He's naturally a bigger man than Calderon, he hits hard and works very hard looking to landing his punches, something that against this version of Calderon will work.
Prediction-Fuentes TKO6
Note-This is yet another bout in the legendary rivalry of Mexico (Fuentes) v Puerto Rico (Calderon)
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