FanHouse Ivan Calderon

Despite big nights for the sport like we had on Saturday night, we're constantly hearing that boxing is a dying sport. Two of the biggest reasons for that are that no one can keep the weight classes straight and no one can keep the champions straight.

Ring Magazine deserves great credit for attempting to change that by establishing clear-cut criteria for determining its own champions, but I have two problems with the way Ring does things. The first is that the magazine ranks fighters in 17 different weight classes. That's too many. And the second is that the Ring ratings have so many vacancies at the top tthat only six fighters can be called Ring Magazine champions. That's too few.

So below is my attempt to list boxing's legitimate champions, using only the sport's eight traditional weight classes.

Boxing has a hard time attracting new fans for many reasons. Two of the biggest are that no one can keep the weight classes straight and no one can keep the champions straight. Below is my attempt to fix that, listing the legitimate champions in each of the eight traditional weight classes.

Ivan Calderon defeated Hugo Cazares by technical decision Saturday night, improving his record to 32-0 and retaining his WBO light flyweight title.

And while many title belts are meaningless, Calderon is also the owner of The Ring Magazine junior flyweight title, and that is very meaningful: He's the best in the world in his weight class. He's also one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world; the last time I did my Top 25 rankings I had him at No. 15, and he could soon be in the Top 10.

The fight with Cazares had a somewhat unsatisfying ending. Calderon had the home-crowd advantage in his native Puerto Rico, and he was putting on a good showing, but when Cazares opened a gash on Calderon's head with an accidental head butt in the seventh round, the fight had to be stopped. They went to the scorecards and Calderon was ahead on all three: 67-66, 68-65, 68-65.

There aren't a lot of big-name fighters in the lower weight classes, and I'm not sure that Calderon -- who's only five feet tall -- is going to be able to move up to a higher weight class. But while he might not get any high-profile fights, as long as he's fighting 108-pounders like himself, Calderon is going to be a dominant champion.

World junior flyweight champion Ivan Calderon will fight Nelson Dieppa next weekend in a fight that, as far as I can tell, exactly no one outside Puerto Rico (where both fighters are from and where the fight will take place) cares about. In fact, to the best of my knowledge the fight isn't even available on television anywhere in the 50 states.

That's a shame. Calderon is 30-0 and the Ring Magazine champion, and he is (based on the little bit I've seen of him) an exciting fighter and a guy more boxing fans should get a chance to take a look at.

So why doesn't anyone care to see him fight? Part of it, I suppose, is that smaller boxers never attract that much attention. Junior flyweight is 108 pounds, which is a weight class that rarely if ever produces stars. Another part of it is that no one has been able to set up a fight between Calderon and the second-best fighter in the weight class, Ulises Solis.

But whatever the reason, it's unfortunate for the sport that a fighter as dominant in his weight class as Calderon isn't getting an audience. This title fight looks like it's going to come and go without making a sound.