GIOVANNI SEGURA KO8 IVAN CALDERON

The long unbeaten run of Ivan Calderon had to end sometime, and as often happens when a long-reigning champion loses, the finish was brutal and dramatic. Calderon gave his all, but he was a physically and mentally broken-down fighter when he sank to one knee to be counted out in the eighth round against Giovanni Segura in their 108-pound championship unification bout in Puerto Rico on Saturday.
 
After 19 consecutive title bouts in two weight classes without a defeat, Calderon’s skills and great experience just weren’t enough to overcome the relentless pressure and brutal body attack of the implacable aggressor from Mexico.
 
Segura just wouldn’t leave Calderon alone. He never gave the masterful Puerto Rican boxer a chance to coast or to get comfortable. Every round — even those he was winning — was one that Calderon had to box at the highest level of energy expenditure. The moment Calderon slowed just a little, Segura was on him, fists flying.
 
Calderon had shown signs of being easier to hit in some of his recent fights, but at 35 he still looked like a fighter in fine form. He produced some beautiful boxing and classy countering on Saturday. The problem was, he was meeting a fighter in Segura who was not simply remorseless in his pursuit but who was hurting him whenever he could hit him.
 
Segura had a plan, too. He went to the body with bruising regularity. Some of those shots when he got Calderon on the ropes looked like real rib-benders. I even noticed some jabs from Segura’s southpaw posture — one of them seemed to knock Calderon back several steps.
 
There were times when Segura was just marching in with his hands down, so confident was he that he could walk through anything that Calderon threw at him. He was made to miss a lot, of course, but Segura didn’t make the mistake that was made by Hugo Cazares and  others of winging big shots from far out. He would often wait until he got closer and only then let the punches fly, and he always seemed prepared to punch with Calderon.
 
Calderon was under so much pressure that there were times when he seemed to have no choice but to dig down and throw punches as hard as he could from his southpaw stance, and he landed some solid right hooks and left hands. Unfortunately for Calderon, however, he has never had seriously hard punching power: he could steady Segura somewhat on occasion but he couldn’t turn back the incoming tide.
 
By the fifth I thought that Calderon was showing the strain of this fierce fight. It seemed that the body punches were hurting him, while Calderon was getting caught too often, and too early in the fight, by punches upstairs. It looked as if Calderon had been belaboured into the ropes for a knockdown in the fifth but referee Jose H. Rivera did not see it that way. It was clear, though, that Calderon was caught up in a frantic struggle that was not at all to his liking.
 
With blood showing inside his mouth, Calderon made a great effort to regain the initiative in the seventh round, throwing everything he had. When Segura steamed into him again in the eighth — like a Dobermann let off the leash with the command of “attack” in its ear — the fighting spirit seemed to leave Calderon. He simply had no more to give, and he could no longer stand up to Segura’s body blows. When he went down it was what I would call an honourable surrender — Calderon had done all he could and no one could have asked for more.
 
The fight probably surpassed expectations for intensity and excitement — the rounds flashed by, almost in a continuous blur — and Segura has surely established himself as one of the game’s most colourful and exciting champions.