By William Mackay: Promoter Gary Shaw has no doubts that unbeaten #1 ranked WBC junior middleweight contender Saul Alvarez (35-0-1, 26 KO’s) will beat the light-hitting EBU welterweight champion Matthew Hatton (41-4-2, 16 KO’s) on March 5th at the Honda Center, in Anaheim, California. Shaw, who promotes #2 WBC contender Alfredo Angulo (19-1, 16 KO’s), wants the World Boxing Council to give Angulo an immediate shot at the WBC title against Alvarez after Alvarez does away with Hatton, according to fightnews.com.
Shaw believes that the 28-year-old Angulo deserved to fight for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title, which was recently vacated by Manny Pacquiao after he beat fellow Top Rank fighter Antonio Margarito for the belt last year in November. Angulo is wrapped up in legal issues to try and get back his U.S. visa, which would enable him to fight in the U.S.
Angulo hasn’t fought since destroying Joachim Alcine by a 1st round knockout last year in July. This was Angulo’s fourth consecutive victory after losing a disappointing 12 round decision to Kermit Contron in May 2009. Angulo hits hard and has an excellent chin. It’s doubtful that Alvarez’s promoters from Golden Boy Promotions are going to want the young 20-year-old Alvarez facing Angulo any time soon, because he hits too hard and is good at pressuring. Look for Alvarez to be kept away from Angulo for as long as possible.
The Alvarez-Hatton fight is taking a lot of criticism in the media and from different fighters because Hatton has never fought at junior middleweight before and is being given a shot at the vacant title over top contenders like Ryan Rhodes, Angulo,and Paul Williams. Also, Alvarez, a big star in Mexico, is totally unproven at this point and has picked the vast majority of his wins facing B and C level fighters. Most recently, Alvarez has faced his toughest opposition of his career in fights against 39-year-old Carlos Baldomir and 39-year-old Lovemore N’dou. Those fights are hardly the kind of bouts you would think that should put Alvarez at the number #1 spot over more established fighters like Angulo, Williams and Kermit Cintron.
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