BOOK REVIEW: Legendary British fight figure Mickey Duff called him: “The most outstanding boxer from this county never to have fought for the world title.” Former flyweight champion Charlie Magri said of him: “He was fantastic. He should have earned a fortune.” Terry Lawless, London manager of world champions John H. Stracey, Maurice Hope and Magri, reflected: “He’s probably the most gifted boxer I have ever managed, different to everyone else. I’ve never seen people do things like him.”
Born in England in 1942. Life as a boxing writer began with a weekly column in a newspaper called the South London Advertiser in the early 1960s. Moved to the far bigger-circulation South London Press, writing a twice-weekly boxing section, in 1966. Joined the weekly Boxing News in 1970 and became editor in 1972. Moved across the pond in 1977 for marriage-related reasons and covered the American scene for Boxing News until joining Boxing Monthly in 1990.
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Who said lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place? It did in the rematch between Ivan Calderon and Rodel Mayol when, for the second time in three months, heads clashed and the fight went to the scorecards — with, as before, Calderon suffering a slice just below the hairline.
The ending came with the fight at an intriguing stage. Mayol had been outboxed and outsmarted for much of the fight but he was having occasional success with his pressure, and in the seventh he landed his best right hand of the fight. It was also Mayol’s strongest round so far, yet heads collided and the fight was over just when it seemed that Mayol was starting to come on.
As in the first fight between the two, the judges were divided. In June it was a three-way split resulting in a technical draw, this time Calderon won by split decision. Puerto Rican judge Carlos Colon had Mayol winning, 68-65, while judges Julio Lederman of New York and Dr. Ruben Garcia from Texas each had Calderon up by scores of 68-65.
Three points down on two cards and with five rounds to go, Mayol probably wouldn’t have been able to close the gap, but it would have been nice to see him have the chance to try.
Calderon, as predicted, was sharper than he had been in the first meeting, but Mayol was making a competitive fight of it. The Filipino missed a lot, which is par for the course for anyone meeting the slick and slippery Puerto Rican, but I thought that Mayol landed enough punches to keep very much in the fight.
Scoring the incomplete seventh round for Mayol, I had Calderon up 67-66 at the time of the finish. He seemed to be popping away effectively enough from his southpaw stance to get his nose in front, but Mayol was doggedly pursuing him. The last five rounds would have been most interesting — if only we’d had the chance to see them.
