Alfredo Angulo (22-4, 18 KOs) partially explains away his last two defeats to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Erislandy Lara by him fighting in the wrong weight class. Angulo, 32, has now moved up to middleweight and he hopes that he’ll be able to restart his career with a victory in his next fight against James De La Rosa (22-2, 13 KOs) on the Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Marcos Maidana 2 fight card on September 13th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Golden Boy Promotions isn’t doing Angulo any favors by matching him against De La Rosa, because this guy is a tough opponent for a fighter coming off the kind of beat down Angulo suffered in his last fight against Canelo.
The Angulo-De La Rosa fight is kind of a sink or swim type of a fight for Angulo. If he can beat De La Rosa, then there are bigger fights in the future for Angulo. But if he loses the fight, it’s hard to say what Golden Boy will be able to do with him. He’s already lost to James Kirkland and Kermit Cintron in addition to his defeats at the hands of Canelo and Lara.
Unless Angulo can get back his power that he once had, he’s going to lose badly to De La Rosa on September 13th. What Canelo did to Angulo was nothing special, because Angulo would have been beaten by any other fighter in the junior middleweight division the night that Canelo beat him. It’s a good thing for Canelo that Angulo had lost his power.
Had he been the same fighter that gave Lara problems, then he would have tested Canelo’s chin frequently.
The Angulo-De La Rosa fight will take place at a catch-weight of 162 pounds. Hopefully, Angulo doesn’t look as weight drained for this fight as he did in his last one against Canelo.
“I think this is a good fight for my weight,” Angulo said. “I’ve been getting my weight and my body ready for the next weight class. I cut a lot of weight before the last fight and I think my body will be better at middleweight. Basically I’ve been saying it all along I was going to stay at 154 up until my body said otherwise. It’s not a struggle. I can still make 154 but not comfortably, so that’s why the jump to 160. You know, I think I’m going to feel more comfortable. I’m going to be the ‘Perro’ that you all know.”
Even when Angulo was at his best, he was still a very flawed fighter, as we saw in his losses to Cintron and Kirkland. He can some of the guys, but when he steps it up even slightly, he loses.
