Calderon beats Iribe, retains light-flyweight title

Boxing in its purest form is supposed to be the art of hitting without getting hit. Jesus Iribe succeeded in hitting Ivan Calderon with a right hand that deposited the WBO light-flyweight champion on the seat of his pants briefly in the second round last night at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.

But Calderon was so successful at avoiding the Mexican fighter's bull rushes that, by the ninth round, the pro-Puerto Rican crowd of 2,150 fans took to shouting "Ole!" every time their hero made Iribe miss. Dancing and jabbing the rest of the fight away, Calderon won a unanimous decision to retain his title for the 18th straight time.

"That's part of my game," Calderon said of the chanting crowd. "It started in Puerto Rico, and I brought it to New York."

Iribe was the most frustrated man in New York, and it showed in the final round when he managed to clinch with Calderon and sling him into the ropes. Judges Carlos Ortiz and Robin Taylor both scored it 118-109 for Calderon, and Bill Stewart had a 116-111 margin. Calderon was a 117-110 winner on Newsday's card.

After seeing his past three bouts go to the scorecards when he was cut by head butts, Calderon promised to box "real cute" rather than trying to show power he doesn't really possess. In the first round, Iribe had trouble getting close enough to touch Calderon, who zipped in and out to land jabs.

But in the second, the lefthanded Calderon dipped to his left, and Iribe hit him with a perfectly timed right hand that put Calderon on the canvas. He was up quickly and immediately reverted to backpedaling out of harm's way except for brief flurries. Iribe got close enough late in the fourth round to land a hard right and possibly steal the round with a late barrage.

Calderon outpunched Iribe early in the fifth, piling up jabs and combos so that a five-punch combo by Iribe late in the round was too little, too late. The pepper spray of jabs from Calderon in the sixth, many of which were followed by quick rights, began to raise a mouse under Iribe's right eye.

The seventh round was more of the same as it seemed Calderon was leading Iribe around the ring on a leash as he jabbed and then ducked under Iribe's punches. At times, Iribe turned southpaw, trying to counter Calderon's style. He landed the occasional right that way but generally found more frustration.

"He got me with that right hand, and I started changing my style," Calderon said. "My boxing frustrated him. After seven rounds, that's when I got hot and started doing my dancing."

The undercard contained one unexpected gem of a fight between two flyweights in only their third pro fights. Puerto Rican McWilliams Arroyo (3-0, 2 KOs), who has won a world amateur title, suffered a shocking loss to Japan's Takashi Okada (2-0-1, 1 KO) by a unanimous four-round decision.

After a strong first round by Arroyo, Okada was wobbled early in the second round by a left from Arroyo. But fighting with incredible determination, Okada caught Arroyo with a left that sent him to the canvas midway through the second. That made the difference as he won by a point on two cards and two points on the other.