By Jaime Castro-Núñez: Last Saturday, March 14, was held in Mexicali, BC, the championship battle between WBA Light Flyweight interim champion César Canchila and rude challenger Giovanni Segura, who after four intense rounds captured the scepter that was on Canchila hands since July 26, 2008, when he defeated Segura by unanimous decision. This second match lasted only four episodes, but they were intense since the bell rang in the first round until the incredible nine times it sounded at the end of the fourth. It was a controversial end, not by the way Giovanni Segura controlled the actions, but by the unfortunate arbitration of Panamanian Julio Cesar Alvarado, who stopped the fight confused, after the timekeeper rang the bell almost ten times before he could hear it!
Giovanni Segura started the fight according to the plan, which was to press the champion from the very beginning. The challenger did it so impeccable that Canchila was floored in the first and second rounds. The champion, on the other hand, failed to find the peaceful rhythm with which he defeated Segura the first time they clashed. Why César Canchila did not find the mental clarity he had on July 28, 2008? Because he stepped into the ring somehow disturbed, without the serenity he needed to realize that, contrary to the ring he had in Las Vegas, Mexicali’s was visibly smaller. By not being calmed, Canchila made the mistake of exchanging with Segura early in the fight. And when he tried to step back, he invariably found the ropes.
While the ring in Las Vegas gave him the option to walk and box the opponent, in Mexicali he got cornered more easily. In Baja California the smaller ring had an added value for the local fighter, who did not make the physical effort he made in Nevada. The superiority of the Mexican was unobjectionable for the first two rounds, striking in the third and barely perceptible in the fourth, when he connected and received in equal proportions. Segura started from 10 to 0, while Canchila went from 0 to 10. While the challenger had a faster start, the champion had a later one. That situation was so clear that during the last fifteen seconds of the fourth, both Canchila and Segura were about to visit the ants.
The fourth round ended with a vicious hand by Segura who, like Canchila, heard the bell and therefore made the gesture of going to their respective corners, but they kept trading punches because ref Alvarado did not step in. Canchila back pedaled and the bell rang again, but Alvarado was still not listening. Segura continued the assault and the bell sounded seven more times! The public, corner men and even the model were ready for the break, but the referee, somehow confused, decided to halt the contest. The moment was so confusing that Javier Capetillo quickly ran to walk his pupil to the corner. Then he asked Alvarado what was going on. Now, Alvarado’s mind is clear and raises Segura’s hand, proclaiming him as new champion of the world. Canchila´s corner men, Alberto Agámez and Orlando Pineda, said to fight commissioner Jorge Contursi: “The bell sounded!” “Yes, I did hear the bell,” replied Contursi.
It was an unclear end that left many open questions. What would have happened in the fifth round? Remember that César Canchila was finding his rhythm. Despite the knockdowns, he was in better shape and had greater strength to continue. Giovanni Segura also won that last round, but fatigue, bruising on the left eye and his difficult breathing probed Canchila was alive in the fight. Those were the factors that made Canchila Segura-II a controversial encounter. Was César Canchila really unable to continue? Would Giovanni Segura endure three more rounds? Those are open questions that will never be answered thanks to an arbitrator who, at least on this occasion, was not at the height of combat.
This author does not object the superiority of Giovanni Segura in the four rounds the fight lasted. “The Aztec Warrior” made a great fight thanks to preparation and precise blows. Canchila, meanwhile, failed to find the clarity he needed to realize that he was not only facing a genuine puncher, but with a smaller ring that made of him an easier target. Since he lacked that third step he had in Las Vegas, it was impossible for him to do his best boxing. I believe that exchanging with Segura so early in the fight, along with the lack of mental clarity he needed, coasted him the belt. For now the Mexican State of Guerrero has a new champion of the world. This author agrees with those who see in Giovanni Segura a solid champion. Congratulations! And while the team of the new monarch expressed a third fight might happen, the chances that it actually happens seems to depend solely on how attractive it looks to Top Rank. From here we wish best of luck to Giovanni Segura and, despite the adverse circumstances, a happy birthday to César Canchila, who turned 27 the day after the fight.