Article Written By: Oscar Quinones
On March 8th, everybody will see Saul “Canelo” Alvarez make his comeback at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas after suffering his first loss against Floyd Mayweather last year. Many thought that Canelo would make his comeback fighting Miguel Cotto, but Cotto decided to go up in weight to fight current RING and WBC middleweight champion Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez. The question that everybody now asked was, who would be worthy enough to face and would be a good enough fighter to help Canelo make a comeback?
There were two names flying around, Erislandy Lara and Alfredo “Perro” Angulo. The Lara fight seemed to be the most logical of fights, being that Angulo is coming back from a loss against Lara, but Golden Boy instead decided to go with Alfredo Angulo for the simple reason that Angulo is an all out brawler while Lara is more of a technical fighter. Angulo will generate more action in the fight, making a better fight for Canelo to comeback from.
Not many know about Alfredo “Perro” Angulo. His record as of right now is 22 wins, 18 via knock out, three losses and zero draws. He fought for Mexico in the 2004 Summer Olympics and is currently signed with Golden Boy Promotions. In his amateur career, Angulo won against Timothy Bradley, he has also sparred with many great boxers like Roy Jones Jr. and Antonio Margarito.
He is the type of boxer that pushes the fight, a natural brawler that will will take punches but return them twice as hard. Many can see why Golden Boy Promotions picked Angulo to go up against their protege. This will be the first time Angulo is the main event in a PPV fight.
The way both fighters are, the fight will be a slug fest.
The key factor that could go in Canelo’s favor will be his new ability to dodge and counter punch. Alvarez demonstrated that he is not only a brawler but can also be a counter puncher in his fight against Austin Trout. On the other hand, the key factor that could go in Angulo’s favor is his will to push the fight and rain hard punches on his opponent.
Alvarez seems to not throw when a flurry of punches come his way, meaning Angulo could use this to his advantage. Although Alvarez is the favorite in this match up, I can see Angulo landing a big punch to the body and not allowing Alvarez to throw many punches allowing him to at least pull a draw against Alvarez or even a possible split decision.
Although this match up is going to be an all out war, many are questioning if the fight is PPV material. Alvarez losing did affect his popularity, especially in Mexico, and Angulo isn’t the type of fighter to generate a huge sum of cash. Golden Boy Promotions is trying to rise Alvarez to super stardom once again, but could potentially hurt him more than help in with these hasty decisions. Whatever the outcome of attendance is for the fight, one things is for sure, the fans will see an all out war in the ring.