The ESB British Forum Encyclopedia

Stellayikes:yikes

hope u don't beat those TWO birds up u in had the other night

are they still locked in your bedroom:think

 

I'm past my prime, so won't be adding to my already stellar resume on this thread. (pun intended)

 

Tyson piece was ace btw

 

Evander "The Real Deal" Holyfield
Undisputed cruiserweight & heavyweight world champion
1984 Olympic light-heavyweight bronze medal​

Born:19/10/1962 Atmore, Alabama, USA
Height:6 ft 2 1⁄2 in (1.89 m)
Reach:78 in (198 cm)
Professional record: 44(29)-10(2)-2-1

Part 2/3: Heavyweight 1988-1995
In 1988 Holyfield moved up to the heavyweight division where he was almost always the smaller man, often the underdog & sometimes outweighed by +30lbs. He started campaigning at a shade over 200lbs & 20 years later was still only 215, however it was at heavyweight he became renowned for the incredible courage & considerable skill which made him one of the finest fighters of modern times. He would go on to win the heavyweight title a record 4 times (5 if you count the WBF which no-one should:deal)

After leaving the cruiserweight division behind the undisputed champion & still unbeaten Holyfield won his first 6 heavyweight contests inside the distance, these fights included wins over former world champions Pinklon Thomas & Micheal Dokes. The Dokes fight was voted best HW fight of the 80s by the Ring Magazine.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtvA4STO6Fk[/ame]

Holyfield rose through the rankings to become the #1 contender to the current champ, Mike Tyson. The contracts were signed & fight was scheduled for 1991. In the meantime Tyson had a mandatory defense against an opponent considered so poor that no US venues were interested in staging it & the fight took place in Japan instead. James Buster Douglas, a 42-1 outsider shook the world with one of the biggest ever sporting upsets & then signed to fight Holyfield next. Holyfield upset the odds & knocked out Douglas in the 3rd round to become the undisputed heavyweight champion.:happy

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM3VOSiaUEQ&feature=related[/ame]

In his first defense Holyfield took on the legendary George Foreman who was in his 40s & in the middle of a famous comeback which would eventually make him the oldest ever world champion. Foreman in his 2nd incarnation was a very different fighter from his younger days, he was slower but fought in a different style with fewer wild swings. He used his underrated boxing ability & he had a solid chin & very heavy hands. The younger Holyfield stayed outside & with a higher workrate won a wide decision over 12 rounds, despite being wobbled in the 7th.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5ZHfzaQMpM[/ame]

After this win the contracts were signed a 2nd time for a fight with Tyson but he was indicted for **** & would later be sentenced to 6 years in prison. Instead Holyfield fought the underrated Bert Cooper in his hometown of Atlanta. Cooper surprised many with the intensity he fought with & he sent Holyfield sprawling into the ropes for the first accredited KD of his career in the 3rd after being dropped by a body shot in the 1st. In an exciting fight both fighters exchanged punishing blows but eventually Holyfield wore Cooper down, landing a series of unanswered punches until the ref Mills Lane stepped in to end the fight in the 7th.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLhY96EzkxQ[/ame]

In his next defence he fought another former legend, the 42 year old Larry Holmes who had upset the formidable Ray Mercer in his previous fight. Despite suffering the 1st serious cut of his career from a stray elbow Holyfield won by a wide UD. Next up was big Riddick Bowe, the unbeaten 1988 silver medalist from Brooklyn. In the build-up to the fight Holyfield's oldest brother, Bo, who had been part of his training team from the start was murdered by his wife's cousin. An emotional Holyfield lost his head in the 2nd round after being hit by a cheap shot on the break & moved to the inside trading with the younger, stronger, 235lb Bowe for the next 10 brutal rounds.

The fight reached its ferocious climax early in the 10th with Bowe landing an huge flush uppercut which Holyfield somehow survived, showing incredible heart as he refused to go down. Holy then came back with good shots of his own & finished the rounds bouncing on his toes :shock:. The fight went the distance & Bowe deservedly won the decision in one of my favourite ever fights. If you watch any single fight of the 3 posts about Evander then please watch this (though I am only including the 10th round to save space:bbb)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ooarvj6f_k[/ame]

Having lost his titles in his 1st professional loss Holyfield beat Alex Stewart to earn a rematch with Bowe, who had vacated (thrown in the bin) his WBC title after refusing to fight Lennox Lewis, who had beaten him in the 1988 Olympic final. A heavy underdog Holyfield weighed in at a bulked up 217, 12lbs heavier than in thier 1st fight. This time a determined Evander was boxing well until the fight was interupted by Fan Man. In the 7th round, James "Fan Man" Miller paraglided into the arena propelled by a fan, his chute caught in the lights above the ring & he crashed into ropes & was dragged into an angry crowd where he was beaten until security arrived & removed him. Eventually the fight resumed & Evander continued to box well & won a majority decision in a close & wildly entertaining fight becoming a HW champ for the 2nd time, only Patterson & Ali had previously won, lost, then regained the heavyweight title :happy

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDbp_mE2NIk[/ame]

In 1994 for his first defence of his titles he faced the unbeaten soutpaw Micheal Moorer. He was a fustrating talent who had changed trainers several times before hooking up with Teddy Atlas. Holyfield knocked Moorer down in the second round with a left hook but injured his shoulder in doing so. He fought on in tremendous pain & went the next 10 rounds barely able to use his left arm, he was also cut above the eye in the 5th & it steadily worsened throughout the fight. Moorer became the 1st ever southpaw heavyweight champion & after losing by a close majoirty decision Evander was taken straight to hospital.

Whilst having his shoulder examined a routine scan revealed a serious heart problem, it later emerged he had been fighting in a state of heart failure after having a cardiac arrest early on in the fight. He was immediately forced to retire but after visiting evangelist Benny Hines miracle crusade he was "slain in the spirit" & told he was healed. After extensive medical tests he was told that somehow the hole in his heart had healed & he was free to fight again.

In 1995 he fought the formidable Ray Mercer & became the first man to knock him down on his way to winning a 10 round UD. This win earned him a 3rd fight with Riddick Bowe in which he knocked down Bowe in the 6th, also for the first time in his career. However that was the highlight of his worst performance in their trilogy & Bowe rose up to go on & win by stoppage in the 8th. Evander had been suffering from HepatitisA during the fight & after this defeat & aged 33 he was again advised to retire for his own safety. Boxing writers said he was too old, too small & would never become world champion again.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y73YNWFJVkU&feature=related[/ame]

Part 3: 1996-Present

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showpost.php?p=10829716&postcount=872

 

10th round of Bowe-Holyfield 1: my favourite round ever.

 

Starting a Calderon one now. If I don't get too ahead of myself might have it done within the next few hours.

Though my lack of motivation/laziness will probably lead to me bailing like I did today after beginning to construct another preview thread.

 

I love it:bbb

Fan Man killed himself:-(

 

Yeah, sad ending by the sounds of it. Mentalist.

 

Am I right in saying that nobody realised he was dead until HBO or Showtime or whoever it was tried to do a follow up on the fight 10 years on and tried to contact him only to find he had committed suicide a few years earlier

 

PART 1

This content is protected

Ivan ''Iron Boy'' Calderon

Born: 1975-01-07 / 36 Years Old.
Division: Strawweight/Light-Flyweight
Stance: Southpaw
Height: 5 Foot
Reach: 63''
Country: Puerto Rico
Birthplace: Guaynabo
Record: 34(6)-2-1


Considered to be one of the best pure boxers the sport has seen in the modern era, Ivan ''Iron Boy'' Calderon is one of the most decorated ''little men'' the sport has ever had the privilege of having. Taking over from Ricardo Lopez as the poster boy for the lighter weights, he is the true example of how a fighter does not need to possess any sort of fearsome power to force their way to the upper echelons of the sport. Speed of hand and foot, immense ring IQ, great footwork, fluid movement, he had all in abundance, and is one of the real greats of the modern era.

Born in Guaynabo, a municipal province in the northen part of Puerto Rico, as was the case with many children growing up in the area, a young Calderon had to endure a childhood in which he was engulfed by a myriad of problems and violence. A scenario which is prevalent amongst many fighters, Calderon attributes his difficult upbringing as something that has enabled him to grow an added sense of patience and maturity, which benefitted him both in and out of the squared circle.

A successful amateur career paved the way for his future professional prosperity, as(according to the man himself) he compiled a record of 110-20 in the unpaid ranks, including a win over a young Miguel Cotto at light-flyweight in 1993. In 1999, a 23 year old Ivan ventured to Canada to compete in the Pan-American games. Wielding a style that opponents found hard to land on with their ''fencing'' tactics, he emerged victorious against Wilfrido Valez and Mendeo Winston, only to lose in the semi-finals to decorated Cuban Maikro Romero. The bronze medal picked up by Calderon, added to the other bronze he had won a year previous at the Central American and Caribbean Games rightfully resulted in a sense of great expectation upon his appearance in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. What followed, however, was an even greater sense of disappointment as Ivan was bested in the opening round of the tournament by the Indonesian Masara La Paene.

With seemingly no more progression to be made in the amateurs, the emphasis on his career soon arced to the professional game, making his debut against Sergio Diaz in February of 2001, scoring the first of only six stoppages he acheived in his entire career in the opening round, dropping his overmatched foe twice. Displaying the same style that would be maintained for the duration of his career, he impressed the few people that were present at the MGM Grand for this card opener on the undercard of Erik Morales-Guty Espades with his in and out movement, dropping in quick, accurate and precise salvos until Diaz succumbed.

Whoever did see that performance of his was obviously impressed, as due to this he was showcased with regularity on Friday Night Fights, often opening(tv or in general) shows in the likes of Phoenix and Queens, on cards that featured the likes of Martin Castillo, Luiz Collazo and Roberto Carlos Leyva(whom he would later defeat as a then 19-0 champion). It was a properous start to what looked to potentially be a very fruitful career, with the only negative being that we were already beginning to see a proneness to cuts that would hinder him in years to come.

Now a rising star, Calderon was soon turning heads and raising eyebrows with his superb performances. In amongst the usual fodder an up and comer is expected to work his way through were dominant victories against Alberto Rossel and Alejandro Moreno(unimpressive on paper, but such a dominant display was impressive, considering that this is a man who at one point had the toughness to take a few rounds off Hugo Cazares), wherein he flourished, giving performances that would normally only be expected from an accomplished veteran of the game, not a 10 fight novice. The fact that he was somewhat of a novelty assisted him too, a five foot pugilist is not a regular occurance, even at strawweight. The ''small guy who boxes from range'' was often left etched in memories that would otherwise have quickly forgotten an ineperienced Puerto Rican strawweight that was merely card-filler for the most part.

His handlers clearly saw no point in taking the slow route with such a wonderful talent, and jumped quickly at the opportunity to put their man in the ring with a newly-crowned WBO champion who was considered to be a weak link in Eduardo Ray Marquez, who had obtained his title by defeating an opponent even less experienced than Calderon in Jorge Mata. Given the chance to display his talents to a wider audience - along with Morales and Jorge Arce, he was support on the card of De La Hoya-Campos - Calderon displayed the vast facets to his game that would soon make him a familiar face at the pinnacle of boxing's lightest division, utterly outclassing the champion with his wide range of boxing and countering skills, making him miss with deft footwork and head movement, before jumping in with 3's and 4's and backing away. After dropping Marquez twice, a cut was opened on the challengers right eyebrow, and the fight went to the scorecards, resulting in the now 16-0 twenty-six year old winning a wide unanimous decision and winning the first of what was to become many 'world' championship bouts.

Calderon was rewarded for his stellar work up to this point with a chance to headline an event in his home country four months later against a relatively soft touch in Lorenzo Trejo before moving on to inevitably better things. Coming in on possibly the best run of his career - which included a win against Francisco Rosas - Trejo was a respectable, albeit not very dangerous, inaugral defence for the new WBO king. Utilising the vast disparity in fleetness of foot between them, Calderon out-manuvered his Mexican challenger for the full twelve, winning just about every one of them by circling to the right in order to fit right hooks around the guard and uppercuts up the guard of Explosivo.

Immediately following the Trejo encounter was an abundantly more daunting prospect, as countryman Alex Sanchez had arrived back from a short venture to light-flyweight, where he was hungry for expanding on the previous WBO reign he had, which was brought to an abrupt halt in a WBC/WBO unification fight against a former great in Ricardo Lopez, which saw an outgunned Sanchez pummelled in five rounds. A fighter who in his pomp delivered a patient style with great power and killer instinct to the table, the man very much growing into his position of 'champion' was well aware of the difficulties that 'Nene' would be presenting him with come fight time. A lack of speedy feet coupled with a tendancy to become overrawed defensively when presented with quick hands were weaknesses of Sanchez that a perceptive Team Calderon were well enlightened on, and they were deficiencies they knew made Alex almost made to order for Iron Boy, who, as was becoming his custom, used his superior in-ring intellect to outmove and evade Sanchez's attacks, which would be proceeded by a cacophany of swift combinations before once again reeling out of range and frustrating Nene, allowing him to win by a wide unanimous verdict.

Before an eleventh round TKO victory against Edgar Cardenas in a non-title fight(Cardenas failed to make weight, which many seem to forget and list as another defence), a personal milestone was acheived for the once problemed youth as Ivan finally received his high school diploma. It gave a further sense of fulfillment to Calderon, who had now not only garnered success that could not have been anticipated given his upbringing, but had now rectified the mistakes he had made as a young man in Guaynabo a lifetime ago.

Mixing his defences between Puerto Rico and the United States, he was quickly making a case to be called boxings premier ''little man'' as he continued to add to his record with a slew of top contenders and former titlists, defeating all with almost consumate ease, bamboozling opposition with tremendous boxing ability that was fast becoming a rarity for that era. He won his next eight fights all in dominant fashion, in a run that featured the likes of Noel Tunacao, Daniel Reyes, Ricardo Leyva and, in a fight where he scored his sixth last stoppage victory to date, against Miguel Tellez. The final fight of this octuplet, against Jose Varela away in Columbia, was the last time(so far anyways) we've seen Ivan Calderon looking a comfortable and composed strawweight.

His final outing at the weight came in his eleventh defence(often mistaken for twelve due to the Cardenas fight), once again in Columbia, against a man who is forever the bridesmaid in Ronald Barrera. A southpaw with a wild, rough and perpetually aggressive style, Barrera presented the smaller Calderon with a myriad of dilemma's, imposing his size and will on the slick champion, who tried his utmost to slip in sneaky shots from the lead hand before holding on and rolling away. A split decision defeat may have been somewhat generous to Barrera, who probably lost by a wider margin than the scorecards suggested, but must be credited for putting up a sterling effort, and providing the performance that forced Ivan to reconsider his future in the division. After the victory, a realistic Calderon acknowledged that he should not have endured the struggle he did to retain his title, and that a potential move up to light-fly in order to become a two-weight champion was the best port of call.

 

I'll do a part two with his light-fly endeavours tomorrow guys.

EDIT: Just to note, I didn't intentionally leave out vids, it's just that there isn't any of his Strawweight fights on YouTube that I've been able to find. There used to be quite a few but they seem to have disintegrated into internet rubble.

There'll be plenty in part 2(maybe even a part 3?), I assure you all.

 

^this, really good post on Tyson

Not sure, the man was mental

I would vote for Charles but there are lots of very good ones, especially Frazier, Mancini, Augustus, Galindez & many more. Ive learnt a lot from this thread.

 

Nice posts lad, I'll have a good read through a little later.

Cheers Mo :good

 

Na I let then out during the day so they can clean up and make me dinner

 

:yep:yep