Calderon vs. Mayol on September 12th

By Boxing News - 08/10/2009 - Comments

By Dave Lahr: World Boxing Organization light flyweight champion Ivan Calderon (32-0-1, 6 KO’s) will be fighting a rematch with Rodel Mayol (25-3-1, 19 KO’s) on September 12th, in San Juan, Peurto Rico. Calderon, 34, and Mayol fought to a six round technical draw earlier this year in June. The bout was stopped in the 6th because of a large cut on the forehead of Calderon which opened up a round earlier in the 5th after the two fighters clashed heads.

It wasn’t the first time that Calderon and Mayol bumped heads in the fight, but it was the most serious of the head clashes. At the time of the stoppage, the 28-year-old Mayol appeared to be in firm command of the bout and I had him winning four rounds to two. Mayol was throwing most of the punches in the fight and attacking Calderon during every second of the action.

calderon43325Calderon seemed content with just clinching and landing an occasional pot shot. The head clashes were a product of Calderon diving in so often to grab Mayol in clinches. It seemed like a bad strategy from the start, because there was no way that Calderon was going to be able to win the fight by clinching nonstop. Calderon began to push Mayol in the 5th round, instead of trying to land any meaningful punches.

Twice in the round, Calderon ran at Mayol and gave him a great big push that sent Mayol flying backwards. It looked as if Calderon was trying to get Mayol to unravel mentally by this odd kind of physical move, because it looked nothing like what a normal professional fighter does.

It was during one of Calderon’s mad dashes to give Mayol another push that Calderon was cut on the forehead. After Calderon was cut, he suddenly became desperate and started fighting with a lot more urgency, knowing that the fight wouldn’t be going much further.

Calderon has his work cut out for him in the rematch. He’s going to have to improve a great deal if he wants this fight to be competitive because Mayol was dominating the last fight, and was landing many more shots than Calderon. Although only four inches taller than Calderon at 5’4”, Mayol looked a lot bigger than the 5’0” Calderon and was able to control the fight from the outside with his longer punches.

However, Mayol was also getting the better of Calderon on the inside with fast punches. The problem is that Mayol was often grabbed and held by Calderon which slowed down his work rate immensely. Look for Calderon to use the same kind of holding strategy he used last time.

He doesn’t have the offensive firepower to beat Mayol in a straight up fight and has to come up with a way to slow him down so that he can somehow win in a close decision. The fight will be taking place in Puerto Rico, the home country of Calderon, so any close decisions will very likely go to Calderon. This is why Mayol is going to need to make an extra effort to win so convincingly that the judges won’t be able to have any room to not give him the decision.



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