MAYOL-CALDERON - A REMATCH IS THE ONLY FAIR THING TO DO
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 14 Jun 2009
In most cases as the saying goes, ?the third time is a charm?. But tonight for Rodel Mayol it wasn?t so.
Mayol traveled to the Madison Square Garden in New York to challenge the Puerto Rican whirlwind, Ivan Calderon. Calderon was defending his WB0 Light Flyweight crown in front of his hometown crowd amidst the Puerto Rican Day celebrations in the Big Apple. The fight is the third try for a title by the Los-Angeles-based Mayol.
But as fate has it, an accidental clash of heads in round 4 resulted in an injury to Calderon his cutman could not handle effectively.
The cut kept on bleeding every time it was hit in the ensuing rounds. Late in the 6th round the ring doctor called it a night and stopped the fight.
As the rules provide, when such things happen, they have to go to the score cards to find the winner. The cards read 58-56 for Calderon, 58-56 for Mayol and a 57-57 draw.
Thus owing to the cause of the stoppage, the fight was declared a technical draw and Calderon kept his crown.
Calderon indeed kept his crown. However, I am certain that his Puerto Rican macho is a bit shaken and I am sure he would agree to a re-match if only to prove that truly, he is the real champ. With his clean slate now slightly tarnished, he must go out there and fight Mayol again if only to prove that he is better.
A fight where a technical draw was declared, without any doubt must be done again. A rematch is a must to determine who truly was the better fighter.
It is the only right thing to do for the good of boxing, the two boxers and the crowd that paid to see it.
How about it Uncle Bob? Can we do a reprise of the Calderon-Mayol fight perhaps under the Manny Pacquiao fight in October or November?
Please do it. It is the only right as well as the only fair thing to do!
Top photo: Ivan Calderon, of Puerto Rico, right, fights Rodel Mayol, of the Phillipines, during the sixth round of a WBO mini-flyweight championship boxing match Saturday, June 13, 2009, at Madison Square Garden in New York. The fight was stopped due to an accidental head-butt during the sixth round and ruled a draw. (AP Photo/Stephen Chernin)
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