Angulo will need a KO to beat Canelo on Saturday, says Hunter

By Boxing News - 03/04/2014 - Comments

hunter666By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Virgil Hunter believes that his fighter Alfredo Angulo (22-3, 18 KO’s) is in a tough situation this Saturday in his fight against the highly popularly but very flawed Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-1-1, 30 KO’s). Hunter thinks it’s going to require a knockout for Angulo to get a win over Canelo, because the judges likely won’t give a decision to Angulo over a fighter that has the popularity and who brings a lot of fans to the sport.

It’s pretty clear that Angulo has to knock Canelo out to get a victory. All you need to do is look at the Canelo vs. Austin Trout fight and see how one judge had the scored 118-109 to know that Angulo won’t likely be getting a decision over Canelo on Saturday, even if he knocks him down 2-3 times. If Trout wasn’t given a decision over Canelo, then I can’t see Angulo getting a decision against him.

“He [Angulo] has to knock him [Canelo] out,” Hunter said to RingTV. “I have to think that way, knowing what Canelo brings to the table, and what he means to Golden Boy and anybody else that feels like he’s an asset to the sport of boxing. I feel like we have to knock out Canelo to win the fight. The importance of knocking Canelo out has been stressed to Alfredo.”

Trout referred to Canelo as the Golden Goose for Golden Boy going into their fight, and as it turns out the goose got the win despite Trout having outworked Canelo by a long shots.

Canelo spent much of the Trout fight with his back against the ropes resting and playing it safe. That’s why it’s probably going to take a KO for Alfredo to get the fight, because he’s not going to be able to just assume tht he’s going to be given rounds just based on him throwing and landing more big power shots. The fans will be cheering for everything that Canelo throws on Saturday night and it won’t matter that he’s missing shots or if his punches don’t have the same kind of power that Angulo’s shots. He’s going to need to really take the fight to the red-haired Canelo, and leave him stretched out on the canvas and unable to get back up.

Hunter knows what Canelo’s weakness is, and that’s his lack of stamina. Hunter is going to have Angulo pushing the fight against Canelo to make him fight hard and use up his energy in the fight. The only fighter that forced Canelo to work hard was Shane Mosley, but he didn’t have the power or the size to compete against him. However, Mosley did wear Canelo down, bloody him and have him visibly frustrated late in the fight. One can only imagine what Mosley would have done to Canelo if he had any power to speak of. He likely would have made a mess of Canelo and scored a stoppage victory at some point in the fight. If Angulo pushes the fight against Canelo the way he knows how, he could get a stoppage by wearing him out.



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