Alfredo Angulo says he’s ready to take over the middleweight division

By Boxing News - 08/18/2014 - Comments

Santa Cruz and Angulo Roundtable(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: After two straight knockout losses where he’s taken horrible punishment, Alfredo Angulo (22-4, 18 KOs) will be moving up in weight to the super middleweight division for his next fight in facing James De La Rosa (22-2, 13 KOs) in a catch-weight fight at 162 pounds on September 13th on the Marcos Maidana vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr “Mayhem” card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Angulo is technically moving up to the middleweight division from the 154lb division, but he wanted an extra two pounds of weight for the fight against De La Rosa. You can understand that because Angulo reportedly had to lost 34 pounds of fat in 8 weeks to get ready for his last fight against former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last March in a fight where Angulo was beaten badly in losing by a 10th round knockout.

Angulo looked like the textbook description of a weight-drained fighter, as he was incredibly weak to the point where made Canelo, a fighter who’d been clowned in his previous by Floyd Mayweather Jr, look good in comparison.

Angulo is working harder at staying in shape in between fights now, but I guess not hard enough for him to want to fight at 160.

“I’m happy fighting at 160 (middleweight). It’s a lot better than 154,” Angulo said. “I wasn’t having trouble making weight, I just feel better at 160. I’m ready to take over the division at 160.”

Angulo is going to have a hard time trying to “take over the division” at middleweight because he doesn’t have the hand speed to compete with guys like WBA champion Gennady Golovkin of WBO champ Peter Quillin. Golden Boy Promotions are going to need to target IBF champion Sam Soliman or have Angulo wait until WBC champ Miguel Cotto is beaten or retires from the sport.

Cotto isn’t going to fight Angulo. Cotto is just looking for big fights now with the exception of his stay busy fights like the upcoming one on December 13th fight.

I won’t be surprised if Angulo finds it hard to make the 160 pound weight limit as well at this point. If it’s a major ordeal for him to make 154, then 160 won’t be that much easier. Angulo probably needs to move up to 168. I wish him a lot of luck at that weight.

If Angulo loses to De La Rosa on September 13th then it might not matter which division he fights in, because he’s going to have problems wherever he’s at.



Comments are closed.