Segura, on the other hand, has no amateur pedigree yet possesses rocks in both hands that are absolute game changers when landed properly. Added to which, his wide angled, unpredictable shots are the exact antithesis of Calderon’s educated fists that come off turn moves, setting up angle punches.
It’s the master vs. a still learning student, to hear Segura tell the tale of the tape.
“Right now, I’m very thankful with everything that has happened. You mentioned Carbajal,” Segura told me and my co-host David Duenez on Leave-it-in-the-ring.com a few weeks back. “I believe you’re right that we haven’t seen a guy at this weight with power in a long time. But the difference between me and Carbajal is that he had Olympic experience and a lot of amateur experience. I only had 12 amateur fights starting at the age of 20. That’s why you see a rough, uncontrolled Giovanni Segura. I wish I could have those skills. I wish I could move like Calderon, everything, you know? But, so far, I’m thankful to God for this gift of power. I’m just learning, you know? And I’m anxious to get there.”
It’s a classic match-up made in boxing heaven but make no mistake, this is not Gonzalez vs. Carbajal. In that fight, you had two guys who could box well but each possessed one-stop power. This fight pits a sleek pea-shooting sniper vs. a “storm the beach” power-punching commando. While Calderon doesn’t care who is watching because winning any way he can is all he cares about. Segura is a fight fan who grew up loving the sport on TV. As such, he is cognizant of not only winning but how he looks doing it; yet another rarity in your typical modern-day boxer.
“I can’t tell you exactly what kind of style I have because I don’t even consider I have a style, you know?” laughed Segura. “I just try to do as best I can, you know? Try to box a little, do everything I can. I just go with the flow and I go how the fighter takes me, how the fighter gets there. So once that bell rings, I make sure that there’s going to be a fight in the ring. As a fan, I pressure myself to be an exciting fighter who everyone wants to watch; who I want to watch. I watch my videos and say, ‘Oh, that was a good fight. I did a good job.’ So I pressure myself to be an exciting fighter to be in this place.”
When asked how he intends to approach this fight, which has him taking on not only the best boxer he has faced but one of the very best the game has ever seen, Segura says how he will approach the fight should not even be a question when considering the styles.
“There’s two styles; it’s a boxer vs. a puncher,” Segura explained. “There’s no secrets of my game plan. There’s no secrets of his game plan. His game plan is going to be move around and not get punched. My game plan is to go for the hunt. So there is only one solution for me: its be in my toppest shape and make sure I am going to throw as many punches as I can, make sure I’m going to have those legs to follow him and it’s going to be like Tom and Jerry, you know? Just chasing and running. I’m ready for it. You’re going to see [a] cartoon in real life.”
Segura was born in Guerrero, Mexico and his innate toughness is reflection of the region. Baptized in violence at a young age in normal, run-of-the-mill street fights, Segura was ready to better himself as he approached his 20s. It was here in America that he came to follow his longtime dream of becoming a boxer.
“I followed the American Dream when I was 20,” Segura said. “My parents, when I was 20, used to live already in L.A. I was getting out of school, finishing my high school and I said, ‘OK, what’s next?’ They said, ‘Come over here. You can work. You are at an age where you can get out of control. Especially in Guerrero, where I am from. It’s a tough neighborhood. You see a lot of violence; you see a lot of stuff, you know? I still love my country. I will never forget them. But when I got here, I came here with the plan of being a better man, having a better life. I always watched boxing but never had the chance to train. So I get here and I walked to a gym and, all of sudden, I started making amateur fights, fighting at 118, without losing weight and knocking people out. And give them ten pounds advantage because I wanted to fight. I’d tell my trainer, ‘I want to fight him. He has this many fights; I don’t care. Just sign him.’ Who cares for three rounds? Fighting with gloves and headgear for me was like, ‘Wow. This is fun, you know?’ I’m coming from a rough neighborhood where you get down with fistfights, you know? There’s no cowards over there nor backing up so I was like, ‘And then you get paid for this? This is crazy.’ I was shocked. And I would see people get nervous like, ‘Oh. I’m going to spar. What do you think?’ I was like, ‘Man, go there. What’s wrong? You’re not going to die. What’s going to happen to you?’ For me, it was another world. I was like ‘Wow,’ you know?”
The 28-year-old Segura, like many people in his age range, is a product of years of television viewing. He loves all kinds of shows but, above all, he grew up watching and studying the art of boxing on TV. Even before he became a fighter, he was studying tape of fighters. One such fighter is none other than his current opponent.
“People tell me, ‘Have you seen Calderon’s latest fight?’”, explained Segura. “Man, I seen Calderon before I ever started training boxing. I’ve seen all his fights. There’s no secret of him. Since 2000 and on, I know all the fighters. If you tell me before that, I just know what I used to watch on TV when I was young. I used to understand boxing. I used to be able to tell who won the round. When I was nine, ten years old, I used to watch boxing and if there was a close round, they’d ask me who won the round. I’d say, ‘This guy because he landed more punches, [etc].’ I understood the language of boxing. I think that helped me a little bit once I started training. I had the idea of how to manipulate my way of boxing to get over it; to come out with my hands up.”
Segura furthered expounded on his phrase “understanding the language of boxing” and it revealed a boxing I.Q. you might not expect from a come-forward, all-action power-puncher not exactly known for his defense or slickness. It underlines the fact that this is a fighter who has really only been doing this for eight years, with little-to-no amateur experience and yet has a belt and is in position to win another against a great champion. It’s scary to think about if Segura can add wrinkles of detail to his power game over time.
“When you see fighters like Calderon, Gamboa, like Mayweather, they have different styles,” he said. “You have to know and understand and be able to see what the weaknesses of the fighter and what the solution for a fighter [are], what to do. If you have no idea and you’re expecting someone to come and tell you, it’s a little bit harder for you and your trainer. But if you understand what’s the game plan and don’t have to be told too much, you can understand all kinds of things. For me, if you tell me once, I will learn that thing and I will keep on learning. That’s what I learned from boxing is to take one thing and learn. My trainer told me, ‘What if you learned one thing a day? In a month, you would learn 30 things. So be doing that.’ And I’m doing that still. I’m still doing that. Figuring out how much I can do in boxing. So far, this is a dream come true. I started watching Calderon on TV and all of sudden I’m fighting him. This is crazy.”
Most pundits are picking Calderon to outbox Segura citing “The wheels are slow,” “The boxing I.Q.s do not compare,” or simply, “Hey, it’s in Puerto Rico.” But it says here, to paraphrase Mike Tyson, everyone has a plan until they get hit in the mouth. Segura seems as ready as a young champion who came late to the game can ever be; all eagerness and wonder but with a realism about his situation. What he showed most of all, as we talked and as I looked over tape this past week, is that Segura’s willing to do the one thing that makes champions: he is willing to sacrifice himself. He will take ten to give one. He will be relentless no matter what comes his way. Segura will dare to be great, come Saturday night, knowing that all he needs to do is land a few flush shots and he’ll be in a better position than he’s ever been in.
“Look, every fighter that I’m facing, they always come up with the same thing,” said Segura. “’I’m going to do this. I’m going to do that.’ Once you get hit by me, it’s a way different story because you don’t have any idea how much power my hands have until you get punched anywhere you want to mention. In the gloves, shoulders, anywhere. Because I feel it. When I fought Sonny Boy Jaro and I landed that hand to the body, I was like, ‘Oh baby, you’re gone. That’s it.’ [Writer’s Note: That was a first-round knockout win for Segura] I feel my punches go inside the body. I feel that. I feel I am too strong for this division. I am so excited because I know I can do a lot of stuff. Right now, my game plan is to get in as top shape as I can get. I am running; I’m doing a lot of cardio; I’m doing everything I can to get in there. Right now, I can tell you a game plan. Tomorrow, I can tell you a different game plan. But, like I said, I only go with the flow. I know how to fight southpaw. I know how to fight right hand. So anywhere he runs, I have an answer for every moment. The question is going to be in the air until that day of the fight. What’s going to happen? What’s going to happen, you know? All I can tell you is I’m going to be ready to throw as many punches as I can for 12 rounds. That’s all I can tell you. Right now, I am so happy to be here doing everything right now. This is crazy.”
Come Saturday night, we get to find out what happens when will meets skill. Thank the champions (and the boxing gods) for helping us along in our discovery.
You can email Gabriel at maxgmontoya@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/gabriel_montoya and catch him on each Monday’s episode of “The Next Round” with Steve Kim or tune into hear him live on Thursdays at 5-8 PM PST when he co-hosts the BlogTalk radio show Leave-It-In-The-Ring.com. Gabriel is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
Subscribe to feed
