CANASTOTA, New York – Ivan Calderon, the brilliant two-weight world champion, arrived in the upstate New York town of Canastota today ahead of his induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

The diminutive Calderon, lively as ever, revealed that he was influential in the 2007 fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao that took place in Las Vegas.

Calderon had sparred rounds with De La Hoya when “The Golden Boy” was being trained by Freddie Roach.

When Roach was asked about Pacquiao, his star fighter, facing De La Hoya, Roach thought back to the success he had seen Calderon have.

“Freddie Roach said in an interview that it helped him make the decision to fight Oscar, because I outboxed Oscar,” said Calderon.

Calderon said he had hoped a fight with Brian Viloria would take place, but Viloria lost multiple fights before they were due to meet and it passed them by.

Calderon also said he did not want to fight Roman Gonzalez because he did not want “Chocolatito” to build his name off his own.

“Right now, I’d love him to do a comeback with me,” Calderon joked.  

Calderon said he never went into the ring scared because he had already trained hard, and felt that running always gave him the conditioning to do the rounds.

He now works with amateurs and pros in Puerto Rico. When asked if he would have liked to box past greats such as Ricardo Lopez, Michael Carbajal and Chiquita Gonzalez, he said “El Finito” Lopez is the one he would have loved.

“I would have taken ‘Finito,’” he said, presented with a choice of the three greats. “He was a good boxer and he could punch. If you’d tell me who to fight, I’d say ‘Finito’ Lopez.”

Who would have won?

“You can’t tell. I think I would have given him problems.”

As well as De La Hoya, former strawweight and junior flyweight Calderon sparred the likes of Felix “Tito” Trinidad and Shane Mosley, but he recalled winning his first world title in front of an empty arena as he was in an early contest on the night.

“When I won the title, I remember it was empty – they were only coming for the main event. But believe me, I didn’t care,” he said, smiling at the memory of his fight on the bill headlined by De La Hoya and Yory Boy Campas. “I just needed to win the title.”

Later, he was selling out coliseums in Puerto Rico.

Then, discussing retirement, Calderon said that walking away had been hard. “It’s always difficult when you love something. It was not giving up the money but giving up something you love.”