By Jim Dower: Light middleweight contender Alfredo Angulo (14-0, 11 KOs) received some bad news this week in the form of former welterweight champion Ricardo Mayorga (28-7-1, 22 KOs) suddenly pulling out of their February 14th bout due to an injury that Ricardo sustained in training camp. The fight, if it had gone ahead, would have potentially given Angulo’s still young career a big shot in the arm had he been able to defeat Mayorga in an impressive manner.
Now, instead, Angulo and his team are left scrambling trying to find an adequate replacement by the 14th. According to Angulo’s promoter, Gary Shaw, they are looking at possible opponents Cornelius Bundrage and Alfonso Gomez. Kassim Ouma, the former International Boxing Federation (IBF) light middleweight champion, is reportedly interested in fighting Angulo as well. However, Ouma has lost three out of his last four fights which might make him a slightly less desirable opponent in contrast to Bundrage and Gomez.
The 28-year-old Gomez (18-4-2, 8 KOs), a welterweight who previously fought on the reality television series called The Contender, hasn’t fought since losing by a 5th round stoppage against Miguel Cotto in April 2008. A good fighter with a high work rate and respectable power, Gomez might be a little too small to compete with a fighter with as much power as Angulo.
He tends to stand directly in front of his opponents and with a fighter with as much power as Angulo that might not be the smartest thing for him to do. Unless Gomez makes some dramatic changes to his style of fighting, I can’t see him lasting more than four or five rounds against the powerful Angulo.
For that reason, it would probably not be a good idea to match Gomez up with Angulo, at least if you want a fight that is competitive and lasts long enough to please boxing fans. Gomez will make it interesting for as long as it lasts due to his high intensity style of fighting, but he just doesn’t have the power or the punch output to match up with a fighter like Angulo.
Bundrage, 35, would seem to be the better choice given that he has a bit more size, power and a little sturdier chin in comparison to Gomez. Bundrage is coming off an impressive 5th round stoppage over light middleweight prospect Zaurbek Baysangurov in December. However, Bundrage was destroyed by Joel Julio in an 8th round stoppage in 2007 and looked poor throughout against the big punching Julio. Bundrage may have equal problems against Angulo, but hopefully he would have enough of a chin to last at least until the 8th round or so.
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