23.08.07 – By Francisco Cairol: This Saturday, Hugo Cazares (25-3-1, 19 ko’s) of Mexico defends his 108 mini flyweight crown against Ivan Calderón (28-0, 6 ko’s), the current WBO strawweight boxing champ. This is a very interesting fight that the mainstream press, outside of Puerto Rico & Mexico, probably won’t write that much about as they tend to ignore the lighter weights. I have never understood the obsession with the heavyweights as we all know their fights can be, not always of course, ponderous and boring while lighter weight fights usually have more action and skill. Anyway, whoever wins this one probably deserves to be in the pound for pound ratings.
Cazares has shown great improvement as champion and is a hard puncher which can be a rarity at 108 pounds. He has excellent wins over Nelson Dieppa, whom he took the title from and defended against, and also former champ Alex “el Nene” Sanchez both from Puerto Rico.
Ivan Calderón is in the eyes of many who have seen him already a pound for pound contender. He has great hand and foot speed and is an unbelievably slick boxer who has won most of his bout via one sided decisions. He is a defensive wizard who doesn’t get hit a lot but he is not a “pot shotter” as he is very active throwing punches after he makes people miss. There are some “weighty” issues in this fight. Cazares agreed, as a clause in the contract, not to weight more than 118 pounds on the day of the fight.
This is clearly a strike against him as he has been known to weight in the 120’s in the day of the fight. If he fails in this he will be fined for each extra pound. Very shrewd negotiating from the Calderón camp if you ask me. Who will win? Cazares is much bigger and a harder puncher. I don’t think Calderón has faced such a big challenge before. The good news for Calderón is that Cazares is not known for being fast of foot and has never faced somebody as slick as him. His biggest wins, against Dieppa & Sanchez, were against sluggers with not much defense. Also tough Cazares is much taller he doesn’t have a reach advantage. Will he be weakened by trying to weight 118 in the morning of the fight? If I were his trainer, I’d probably not force him to make that weight if I thought it would weaken him too much.
It would be better to be rested and strong and try to win this one and then maybe either fight a rematch or most likely move up in weight rather than hurt his chances to win for the extra money. Then again boxing is a business and being that this is their biggest purse yet it might be hard to resist that temptation. We’ll see. If Cazares can catch Calderon, he could win but it’s not an easy task. I think that Calderon will have some tough moments before pulling away to win another 12 round decision.