By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Virgil Hunter thinks his fighter Alfredo Angulo (22-3, 18 KO’s) has a really good shot at beating former WBA/WBC light middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-1-1, 30 KO’s) on March 8th, if Angulo is the one that ultimately gets selected by the red-haired Canelo to take the fight. Canelo was already turned down by Miguel Cotto for a fight, and now Canelo’s options are down to the following fighters: IBF 154 lb. champion Carlos Molina, Alfredo Angulo or WBA champ Erislandy Lara.
Angulo looked bad in losing his last fight against Lara by a 10th round stoppage last June. It’s hard to see the fight and think that Angulo would have any real chance to beat Canelo. Angulo was just walking into shots left and right by Lara, and picked apart all night long. Angulo did get a couple of knockdowns of Lara, but it still was a mostly one-sided fight other than the knockdowns.
“It’s a fight that he definitely can win,” Hunter said to Fighthype. “I’d like to see if Canelo can keep Alfredo off of him. He’s [Canelo] going to have prove that he can take a punch from a big jr. middleweight. He’s going to have to prove that he can gut it because Alfredo can and he’s motivated for this fight.”
Angulo is a good opponent for Canelo as a tuneup fight, but it’s hard to take him serious as a real threat to the 23-year-old Canelo, especially with Angulo coming off of a stoppage loss to Lara. I can understand Hunter talking up Angulo if he had beaten Lara, but he didn’t. Angulo got stopped and took a lot of punishment in that fight. If Canelo were to lose to this guy then it would be a devastating setback to his career, and it would be difficult to imagine him coming back from the loss.
The template in how to beat Angulo has already been created by Kermit Cintron by using movement in a hit and run manner. The flat-footed Canelo will need to change his fighting style in order to get past Angulo, but I think he can do it.
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