Canelo’s chin to be tested early and often by Angulo

By Boxing News - 02/10/2014 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-1-1, 30 KO’s) will be getting his first taste of being in the ring with a junior middleweight with ‘A’ level power next month in his fight against Alfredo Angulo (22-3, 18 KO’s) on March 8th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Up until now, Golden Boy Promotions has for some reason continued to mostly match the red-haired Canelo up against welterweights rather than junior middleweights. They even went so far to put Canelo in with a welterweight when he fought for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title in 2011 in matching him against fringe welterweight contender Matthew Hatton in a fight that was supposed to have taken place at a catch-weight of 150 lbs, but Canelo came in over.

Canelo has only fought 2 junior middleweights during his career with the rest of them being welterweights or former welterweights. The only real junior middleweights he’s faced are the light hitting Austin Trout and Ryan Rhodes. It’s obviously going to be a significant step up in class for Canelo to all of a sudden having a big puncher like Angulo nailing him with big head and body shots for 12 rounds. It doesn’t matter that Angulo has slow hand speed and that he’s coming off of a stoppage loss to Erislandy Lara in his last fight, he still has the kind of power that can give the flat-footed Canelo nightmares if he tries to trade with him. If Canelo uses the Mayweather-esque shoulder roll and tries to fight defensively, Angulo is going to tear him apart. He won’t respect his shoulder roll, and he’ll walk right through him.

If Canelo backs up to the ropes like he did against Trout, then Angulo will give him a bad beating and may even stop him. The only way that Canelo wins this fight is if he goes right into the teeth of Angulo’s offense and beats him i a one-on-one fight. Canelo can’t beat Angulo by running, because he doesn’t have the stamina to win that kind of fight. If Canelo moves for even three rounds, he turns red in the face and needs to retreat to the ropes and rest for a long period of time. Canelo doesn’t have the gas tank to move around the ring, so he’s going to be forced to try and beat Angulo by slugging it out with him in a war. In a fight like that, it’s a 50-50 proposition for Canelo due to him having fought pretty much just light hitting welterweights his entire career instead of real junior middleweights like Angulo.

Canelo’s brother Ricardo Alvarez will be on the card in a fight against WBC lightweight champion Omar Figueroa in a fight that figures to end badly for Ricardo. He’ll give it his best shot, but look for Ricardo to either get knocked out or lose by a lopsided 12 round decision. IBF junior middleweight champion Carlos Molina will be defending his title for the first time against unbeaten challenger Jermall Charlo. Lightweight Jorge Linares will be fighting Nihito Arakawa. This is a fight that Linares could lose if Arakawa is able to fight at the same level he did in his last fight against Figueroa.



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