Inside the Ropes 08.30.10: Thoughts on Calderon-Segura, Toney’s UFC Debut, Friday Night Fights and More

Posted by Ramon Aranda on 08.30.2010

We have a new junior flyweight champion while James Toney makes a fool of himself and the 2010 season of FNF comes to a close. Plus, I take a look at the week ahead and other random thoughts in this week’s edition of Inside the Ropes.


Iron Boy Melted

On Saturday night, 35-year old Ivan "Iron Boy" Calderon finally experienced defeat as the younger, stronger Giovanni Segura pressed and pressed until finally breaking him down. It was quite a fight that began with Calderon out-boxing the overly aggressive Segura but not unlike the Margarito-Cotto fight, Segura endured and slowly began to wear Calderon fight. To say that this fight turned out to be exciting is not an understatement and turned out to be a happy surprise. Going in I knew Segura would try to turn it in to a brawl but never thought Calderon would oblige. That of course was part of his downfall only made worse by the constant body attack of the bigger man.

Despite coming into the fight unbeaten, Calderon had already started showing signs of decline in his previous fight but his slick counter punching style had carried him to victory in 34 of his 35 fights – the other fight being a draw after his first fight with Rodel Mayol ended in a technical draw from a clash of heads. But what else would you expect in a Mayol fight?

Still Segura, a power puncher, had proven that he wasn't hard to find; a typical Mexican brawler who will eat a punch or two to land three or four of his own. Those who were picking Calderon felt that he'd easily score against Segura and use his footwork to stay out of harm's way. But Calderon must not have counted on a body attack that would be the corner stone of Segura's offense. Little by little, you could see the punishment was accumulating and Calderon was slowing down. To his credit, he fought on and traded but with a lack of power, there was no way he'd keep Segura off. At the end of the day, Segura was just too much for an aging great like Calderon who no longer had the legs to dance his way around danger. That this fight turned out to be a Fight of the Year candidate is a shock, but Calderon's heart and determination was not. Segura just had a little bit more in his arsenal and the two should be commended for putting it all on the line. Sure a rematch would probably sell pretty well but at this stage of Calderon's career, it's hard to fathom what he could do differently in a return bout. This may be in fact the end of the line for "El Nino de Hierro" and if it is, we'll see him in Canastota in five years.

For Segura, he has a bright future ahead of him; at least until he encounters a skilled boxer with enough power to keep him at bay.

Lights Out for James Toney

Ahh, the UFC debut of James Toney on Saturday night – it was the headline going into the weekend, despite an eagerly anticipated rematch between Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn (hey, I follow enough of UFC to know what's what.) No one in boxing really expected much out of Toney despite the MMA crowd trying to turn this into a boxing vs. MMA clash. To be honest, I thought Toney would last about as long as a bag of popcorn preparing itself in a microwave but he hung on just a little bit longer. Toney would hang around a little over 3 minutes before Randy Couture finally choked him out. What a joke that was.

Toney wasn't even able to throw a punch before he found himself on his back and at the mercy of the former heavyweight and light heavyweight champ. It's akin to throwing Couture in against a Klitschko brother - it'd be over before it even began. Never mind that the 42-year old Toney hasn't meant a thing to boxing since his getting beat up by Samuel Peter in their 2007 rematch; this was a sideshow from the moment it was announced. I'll give Couture credit though – he never once said he could take his game into a boxing ring and succeed. He's always said he'd get blasted out if he tried to box whereas Toney seemed to think he could just get into a cage and be as good if not better than the competition. James, you would have won in a ring, but don't fool yourself into thinking boxing skills carry over into a different sport. I can guarantee you that Albert Pujols would get his head taken off if he took a hand-off on a running play in a football field. Luckily the farce of a fight was over before most people even finished their drink. Let's just hope this also ends Toney's foray into mixed martial arts.

So Long Friday Night Fights

On Friday night, ESPN Friday Night Fights saw its 2009 season come to an end with a yawn-inducing clash between Hank Lundy and Omri Lowther. It was not the kind of main event that boxing fans would have wanted to see even on Wednesday Night Fights; let alone the season finale of FNF. Still this year's edition produced some pretty exciting fights that proved to be just as good if not better than some of the crap we saw on HBO this year.

Luckily we still have September 11 to look forward to as fans can check out ESPN3.com to watch the heavyweight title rematch between Wladimir Klitschko and Samuel Peter. Friday Night Fights returns in January for those that are curious.

And for the record, the worst fight of 2010 for FNF in my opinion was Arreola vs. Quezada. What a train wreck that turned out to be. A close second would be Beibut Shumenov's last fight against Vyacheslav Uzelkov…that one nearly put me to sleep.

Things to Look Towards this Week

The most notable thing going on this week is the U.S. media tour for Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito. Despite my personal feelings against Margarito being licensed, we will do our job and provide our readers with coverage of any and all activities. It's only fair; something Margarito doesn't deserve. There are stops in Beverly Hills, New York and finally Arlington, Texas.

Humberto Soto defends his WBC lightweight title against Urban Antillon next Saturday on Fox Sports en Espanol and though Soto should really be fighting better known opposition, this one should be pretty entertaining.

Roman Martinez vs. Ricky Burns will be the main event in Scotland this Saturday for the WBO junior featherweight title. I'll be watching this one and fight fans should look for an online stream of it if possible.

There's a card in Mexico that I'm mildly interested in featuring Omar Nino defending his WBC junior flyweight strap against Ronald Barrera with Jorge Solis also on the card, but it's the WBA middleweight title fight between Felix Sturm and Giovanni Lorenzo that I'm most interested in. Let's see if fighters named Giovanni can go 2-0 in title fights over the course of two weeks.

Random Thoughts

• On Wednesday, I'll be participating in a conference call featuring Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and former welterweight champ Carlos Baldomir. Expect full details later in the week. I doubt many English-only speaking journalists will be on the call, despite the presence of interpreters. Score one for bilingual speakers (including myself).
  
  
• If you're not already following me on Twitter, be sure to do so @411Ramon.
  
  
• If Showtime decides to drop Allan Green from the Super Six World Boxing Classic and go straight to the semi-finals with Froch vs. Abraham and Ward vs. Dirrell; I'll have zero issues with it. In fact, I think it's the best way to go out Kessler withdrawing from the tournament due to an eye injury. Green doesn't deserve another Super Six bout with the way he performed against Ward. I just feel bad for promoter Lou DiBella who also had Jermain Taylor get taken out of the tourney.
  
  
• Did anyone catch Marcos Maidana's life and death struggle against DeMarcus Corley on Saturday? Did anyone even know they were fighting? Well Maidan won via unanimous decision but he didn't look very good at all. He should be happy more fight fans didn't see the bout as he'd lose even more luster.
  
  
• Martinez vs. Williams II – Let's make it happen. That goes double for Alexander vs. Bradley.
  
  
• Jean Pascal vs. Bernard Hopkins? I'd rather see Bute vs. Pascal first.
  

Till next time, see you at the fights!