Photo: Joel A. Colon
Auditorio del Estado, Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico– For two rounds, former champ, Ivan Calderon (34-2-1, 6 KOs) looked to be back.
Moving and jabbing at the hard-charging Giovani Segura (27-1-1, 23 KOs), Calderon was staying competitive through the first six minutes. But, true to form and true to the pattern established in their first fight, Segura kept coming forward until he eventually wore down the Puerto Rican boxing stylist.
The third round marked the beginning of the end, with Segura landing some monster shots to Calderon’s mid-section while starting to trap his rival against the ropes.
Calderon would go down at the midway point of round three from a sustained body attack up against the ropes and take a parting right hook to the head from “The Aztec Warrior” on the way down. The former strawweight and jr. flyweight champ would stay down, on his knees, in an almost exact replay of the way he lost the last encounter– except five rounds earlier.
Segura, after the contest, affirmed his intention to now campaign in the flyweight division (112 lbs.), stating that his body could no longer handle the efforts to make the 108 lb. limit.
Gerry Weber Stadium, Halle, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany– “The Nordic Nightmare” Robert Helenius (15-0, 10 KOs) established himself Saturday as a main stage player in the heavyweight division by knocking out heavy-handed former world champion, Samuel Peter (34-5, 27 KOs) in nine competitive rounds.
The 6 ft 6 Helenius opted to box from the outside, using straight right hands and a marginal jab, for the majority of the contest. A motivated Peter stalked his rival throughout, seemingly close to landing “the big one” on several occasion despite being hampered by a cut over the right eye through the second half of the bout.
The end of the contest came out of nowhere, as Helenius landed a solid left hook in the ninth round that dropped Peter hard. “The Nigerian Nightmare” struggled to his feet, only to be leveled again by another left hook seconds later. The ref waved off the contest at the count of seven, seeing that Peter was unconscious and would be unable to beat the count.
Arena Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico– In a tune up for his upcoming WBC flyweight title bout with Thailand’s Pongsaklek Wongjongkam, Edgar Sosa (42-6, 25 KOs) found himself in more of a scrap than he had anticipated against a tough and skilled Kenichi Horikawa (20-10-1, 4 KOs) of Kyoto, Japan.
Despite not winning a single round on The Boxing Tribune’s unofficial scorecard, Horikawa was competitive throughout the contest, mixing a body and head attack while displaying workable defense against the former jr. flyweight champ.
Sosa, fighting in front of his hometown, eventually caught on to Horikawa’s rhythm and began to walk down his rival in the middle rounds, landing some solid shots in the process.
A Sosa right hook would open a deep cut over Horikawa’s left eye and, with a river of blood flowing into the eye of his opponent, he began launching a strong overhand right hand which started landing hard on his rival.
In the eighth round, and at the advice of the ringside physician, the referee called a halt to the contest.
Other Noteworthy Fights:
(WBO Cruiserweight Title) Marco Huck UD 12 Ran Nakash; (WBC Cruiserweight Title) Krzysztof Wlodarczyk SD 12 Francisco Palacios); (WBA Flyweight Title) Hernan Marquez TKO 11 Luis Concepcion; (Middleweight) Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam UD 12 Giovanni Lorenzo; (Jr. Featherweight) Daiki Kameda TKO 4 Jesus Martinez; (Featherweight) Jorge Lacierva UD 12 Fernando Beltran Jr.; (Lightweight) John Murray UD 12 Karim El Ouazghari; (Super Middleweight) Billy Joe Saunder RTD 2 Turgay Uzun; (Heavyweight) Jason Gavern TKO 7 Darnell Wilson, (Welterweight) Hector David Saldivia TKO 4 Nestor Faccio
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