El matador Calderon frustrates Iribe at Garden

At most fights, the crowd reacts to punches that connect. But Saturday night at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, it was the punches that missed that had many in the crowd of 2,150 cheering.

Every time WBO light-flyweight champion Ivan Calderon moved and left Mexican challenger Jesus Iribe swinging at air, the pro-Puerto Rican crowd shouted "Olé!" It wasn't a no-hitter. Calderon was knocked down by a right hand in the second round and cut over the left eye by another right late in the fourth round.

But over the final eight rounds, Calderon (34-0-1, 6 KOs) played the matador to perfection, frustrating the bull rushes by Iribe (17-7-4, 10 KOs) and boxing his way to an 18th straight title defense. Considering he was coming off a nine-month layoff at the age of 35 and gave away 10 years in age and 31/2 inches in height, the 5-foot Calderon had a right to feel exultant.

He lit up at the mention of the crowd's "Olé" cheers, saying, "That was part of my game. That started in Puerto Rico, and I brought it to New York . . . I got hot. I started doing my show and giving the people what they like to see and giving my best performance."

Two judges scored it 118-110, and the third 116-111. Newsday's card favored Calderon, 117-110.

Calderon's previous three fights ended prematurely from cuts by head butts, forcing those bouts to go to the scorecards. This time, he planned to box "real cute," but in the second round, Calderon dipped to his left in his southpaw stance and got dropped by Iribe's well-timed right.

He was up quickly, then went into jab-and-move mode the rest of the fight. In the fourth round, Iribe applied pressure late and connected with a hard right near the end of the round that opened a small cut on Calderon's left eyelid, but he never could get close enough later to do much damage.

If anything, Iribe was in danger of pulling a muscle after some of his violent misses. "At 35 years old, I showed people I can keep on being a world champion," Calderon said. "He caught me, but I stood up and I wasn't dizzy. In the third round, I started changing my style . . . My boxing frustrated him."

On the undercard, Chief Warrant Officer Steven Badgley, an Army helicopter pilot who ships out to Afghanistan soon, made his long-dreamed pro debut. It ended badly when light-heavyweight Angel Gonzalez scored a technical knockout at 1:55 of the first round.

"I trained hard," Badgley said. "I just didn't do what I was supposed to do. But I fought at the Garden. I feel great. I'm just disappointed in myself."