Alfredo Angulo: Is He A Future Champion?

By Boxing News - 02/05/2008 - Comments

angulo754447.jpgBy Manuel Perez: It may be a little too early to start discussing things like championships for unbeaten unior middleweight prospect Alfredo Angulo (12-0, 9 KOs), but I’m going to anyway, because I think Angulo has the boxing skills and power to be a champion in the division. Already, Angulo has knocked out nine of his twelve opponents, most of which he stopped well before the 6th round. Of course, the opposition is nothing to speak about, but the manner in which Angulo has beaten them has been especially impressive.

Angulo, still only 25, was formerly a member of the Mexican 2004 Olympic squad. This is perhaps why he isn’t mentioned as much as former American Olympic boxers from the same year. To go with his Olympic credentials, Angulo is a four-time amateur Mexican national champion, which says a lot about his ability, because Mexico has some of the best fighters in the world, amateur or professional. Angulo, though still very young in terms of years, is much more a polished fighter due to his impressive amateur background and Olympic status.

Besides that, Angulo, now living in Coachella, California, regularly spars with the best fighters, such as Roy Jones Jr., Antonio Margarito, Ricky Hatton, and Fernando Vargas. Of the names mentioned, Angulo’s fighting style is not unlike that of Margarito, in that Angulo throws the same wide hooks, and very similar twisting downward right hands. Though Angulo isn’t one of the fastest fighters in the junior middleweight division, he appears punch harder than any of the top fighters in the division, except for maybe James Kirkland.

However, Angulo’s fights have none of the drama that Kirkland’s fights sometimes have, because of the fact that Angulo’s chin is very sturdy, preventing him from getting stunned or knocked down like Kirkland has in the past. Add to that the fact that Angulo usually dispatches his opponents within a couple of rounds, giving them little time in which to test his chin before he gets to them.

As of now, I see him already good enough to beat all but one – IBF junior middelweight champion Cory Spinks – of the current junior middleweight champions. Spinks is a fighter that takes a lot of speed to beat, and that’s something that Angulo is a little short on. It wouldn’t be an easy fight for Spinks, because he would take a tremendous beating in the process of winning, but I see him being able to run & jab his way to victory over the slower Angulo. However, if Spinks got trapped in a corner or careless, Angulo would likely take him out in an instant. Once hurt, Angulo is an excellent finisher.

World Boxing Council junior middleweight champion Vernon Forrest would be a good matchup for Angulo. Forrest perhaps has the best ability in the division, but he’s getting up there in age at 37, and he tends to lump up badly in his fights nowadays. If Forrest can keep Angulo from getting in close, of course, it would be an easy victory for him. However, Angulo, despite being only 5’10”, which is considered an average height for a junior middleweight, he is able to close the distance remarkably well.

Forrest, whom is a couple inches taller at 6’0″, would find Angulo directly in front of him, and Forest would have big problems trying to drive Angulo to the outside using his jab, like he does with his other opponents. Angulo walks through the weak stuff like jabs, and once within punching distance, he lets fly with hooks and twisting right hands to the head. It would be a fatal mistake for Forrest to fight someone like Angulo, because he hits harder than Ricardo Mayorga, who twice beat Forrest in 2003.