By Dan Ambrose: Photo credit: A. SALAZAR. EL QUEQUI – On Saturday night boxing fans will be seeing two rusty sluggers face off in a fight between Alfredo Angulo (20-1, 17 KO’s) and James Kirkland (29-1, 26 KO’s) at the Centro de Cancun, in Cancun, Mexico.

Angulo, 29, has fought only once in the past year and a half, while Kirkland has been a little more active as of late after missing most of 2009 and all of 2010 due to a prison stint. Although Kirkland has fought five times since he resumed his boxing career in March of this year, he’s faced largely lower level opposition with the exception of Nobohiro Ishida.

Kirkland was knocked out in one round by Ishida. Now two fights later against 3rd tier opposition, Kirkland is ready to step it up again tomorrow against the hard hitting Angulo. This seems like a really dumb idea when you think about it.

Kirkland has always had a shaky chin even when facing weak opposition, and now he’s facing arguably the hardest puncher he’s ever been in with on Saturday. I think it’s going to end badly for Kirkland. Ishidia, who isn’t a big puncher by any means, had Kirkland down almost every time he connected cleanly with something.

Angulo will be hitting Kirkland a lot harder than Ishidia did, and Kirkland won’t be making it hard on him by standing directly in Angulo’s line of path. This is going to be brutal and short unless Kirkland’s trainer has taught him some defensive skills since his last fight against Alexis Hloros last July.

Kirkland was just as hittable in that fight as he’d been in the Ishida loss. You can’t put a defenseless fighter like Kirkland in with a big puncher like Angulo and expect good things to happen for Kirkland. He’s going to get hit and get a lot.