By Dan Ambrose: 33-year-old former world title challenger Alfredo Angulo (23-5, 19 KOs) has been added to the Leo Santa Cruz vs. Abner Mares card on August 29th on Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Angulo will be fighting a still to be determined opponent in the 168lb division.
Angulo has lost 3 out of his last 4 fights, and has looked incredibly bad. Angulo won his last fight against Delray Raines by a 5th round knockout last June at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
In Angulo’s three previous fights, he was beaten by James De La Rosa, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Erislandy Lara.
“Alfredo Angulo faces TBA on Aug. 29 in a super middleweight bout on the Santa Cruz-Mares undercard. #boxing,” Dan Rafael said on his Twitter.
You would have to assume that Angulo’s opponent will be a lower level guy that won’t give him too many problems. If Angulo gets thrown in the ring with a top 168lb contender, he’d get wiped out. He doesn’t have the speed, power or boxing ability to compete against the best super middleweights like Badou Jack, Gilberto Ramirez, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Callum Smith, Vincent Feigenbutz, Felix Sturm and Robert Stieglitz.
Angulo has also been beaten by James Kirkland in 2011 in a 6th round stoppage and Kermit Cintron in 2009. The Angulo that fought those two fighters would appear to be a much better fighter than he is now. Angulo, who was never fast to begin with, seems to have lost hand speed in the last couple of years.
Angulo started his career out at 154 back in 2005 after competing in the 2004 Olympics for Mexico. However, Angulo has outgrown the 154 and 160lb divisions and now finds himself at 168 for his next fight. It’s unclear if Angulo is going to stay at 168 or move back down to 160. It would be virtually impossible for the very slow punching Angulo to compete against the top fighters in the super middleweight division.
It’s too bad that Angulo isn’t still fighting at 154, because that division would give him his best chance of success. Angulo might be able to luck out against an aging champion like IBF 154lb belt holder Cornelius Bundrage or go after the winner of the Michel Soro vs. Liam Smith fight to try and win the WBO junior middleweight title.
Things are a lot tougher for Angulo if he fights at middleweight, because he would have to deal with champions likes Andy Lee, Daniel Jacobs, Gennady Golovkin and Miguel Cotto. Beating any of those guys would seem unlikely for Angulo.
If he moves permanently to super middleweight, Angulo would need to compete against the champions Badou Jack, James DeGale, Fedor Chudinov, Andre Ward and Arthur Abraham. Of that bunch, Chudinov and Abraham would be the most vulnerable for Angulo.
However, with Angulo losing three out of his last four fights, he’s not likely to get a world title shot against anybody. If Angulo wants a crack at a world title, he’s probably going to need to win all of his fights in the next two years and face at least one or two top contenders and beat them. That would put Angulo at 35 if he can get a crack at a world title by 2018. He’d still be young enough to win a world title, but he’s got to do something about his lack of hand speed because he’s just too slow right now.
Matt Korobov to fight on September 11th on Avalos-Valdez card in Las Vegas, Nevada
#8 WBO middleweight contender Matt Korobov (24-1, 14 KOs) will be in action on September 11th against an opponent still to be determined on the undercard of the super bantamweight clash between contenders Chris Avalos and Oscar Valdez at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Korobov, 32, hasn’t fought since being stopped in the 6th round by Andy Lee last December in 2014 in a failed attempt to try and capture the vacant WBO 160lb title. Korobov was ahead of the scorecards going into the 6th round when he was clipped by a right hook from Lee.
Korobov was then quickly finished off by a flurry of shots from Lee. In hindsight, Korobov should have grabbed Lee in a clinch to get out of the round, but instead he chose to slug with him.
“160 Matt Korobov, out since being KO’d by Andy Lee in world title fight in December, returns Sept. 11 on Valdez-Avalos undercard. #boxing,” Rafael said.
Korobov is still ranked in the top 10 by the World Boxing Organization at middleweight, so things aren’t all bad. But he’s getting up there in age at 32, and he needs to make something happen in his career soon. It’s too bad that Korobov can’t get a rematch against Lee, because if he fought under control for the entire fight, he’d likely beat Lee.
Korobov was dominating Lee when he was boxing him and respecting his powerful right hand. Korobov got a little greedy in the 6th round when he tries to punch with him and it turned around and cost him the fight.
Korobov needs to stay in the slow lane by focusing on Lee rather than going after WBA champion Gennady Golovkin. Korobov doesn’t have that kind of talent unfortunately.
Jorge Linares to defend WBC title against Ivan Cano on October 18th in Caracas, Venezuela
WBC lightweight champion Jorge Linares (39-3, 26 KOs) will be defending his title two months from now against #11 WBC Ivan Cano (23-6-2, 15 KOs) at the El Poliedro, Caracas, Venezuela. Linares is coming off of a 10th round stoppage win over No.1 WBC Kevin Mitchell last May in a fight where both guys hit the deck. There was talk of a rematch between Linares and Mitchell, but it would have required that Linares come back to the UK to fight him.
Cano hasn’t done much with his career. He’s been beaten by Dierry Jean, Daniel Ruiz Mario Cuevas, Javier Hernandez, Jose Luis Lopez and Mario Hermosillo. Cano recently had two draws against Javier Prieto in 2014. However, Cano did win his last fight against John Carlo Aparicio in February of this year. This is obviously a stay busy fight for Linares in choosing Cano.
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