There was plenty to look forward to heading
into last weekend’s crossroads clash between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Alfredo
Angulo. Both men were coming off of high profile losses to a pair of very
finely tuned tacticians (Alvarez losing to Floyd Mayweather last fall, Angulo
losing to Erislandy Lara in the summer) and both were looking to make a
statement.
The only person who made that statement was
Alvarez, who in battering and beating Angulo over 10 lopsided rounds made his
statement loud and clear: “Canelo” Alvarez is the real deal.
Any hopes of Angulo making a go of it went
out the window in the very first round, when Angulo admitted being bothered by
Alvarez’s speedy punches to chief second Virgil Hunter. Canelo’s punches came
in crisp and sharp, landing 63% of his power shots whereas Angulo showed little
to no snap on most of his shots and had the look of a beaten fighter within the
first five rounds.
Angulo had limited success in the middle
rounds when it appeared that Alvarez was taking a break, but was unable to
force any offense to slow down his foe. As the fight progressed, Angulo began
to horribly swell and for the life of him would not defend himself against the
endless barrage of punches from Alvarez.
In the 10th, referee Tony Weeks
had seen enough and waved off the fight much to the dismay of the MGM Grand
crowd and a furious Angulo.
The stoppage came after Alvarez landed what
seemed to be his millionth combination on a brusied and overly swollen Angulo,
but despite Angulo’s physical condition and the fact that he looked like he’d
been beaten by five men, some are calling Weeks’ decision a bad one.
Let’s get one thing clear: There was
absolutely nothing wrong with Weeks’ decision and any other referee would have
made the same call if they had to. For 10 rounds, Weeks saw a fighter who was
outgunned from the start and was deteriorating progressively as the fight went
on.
Angulo’s inability to move his head or do
anything that resembled defense is what caused his face to swell, furthermore
Alvarez showed no signs of letting up and was hurting Angulo with every
finished combination. Even Hunter himself urged Angulo to get busy or he
himself would pull the plug…and that came at the end of the ninth round!
With this loss, being Angulo’s second
straight stoppage due to facial injuries, it’s pretty much time to write Angulo
off as a top fighter unless some drastic change occurs. The Mexican toughman
has long remained a fringe contender at the Junior Middleweight divison from
feasting on those unworthy to challenge the elite, but falling short every time
an opportunity came to elevate his own career.
A shocking decision loss to Kermit Cintron in
2009 came in a fight that many thought would validate their hopes of Angulo as
a future champion. Though Angulo would resume his winning ways by feasting on
middling foes, he would once again face defeat against the next live dog he’d
face in James Kirkland.
Angulo is now 22-4 with 18 knockouts, going
3-3 in his last six and losing by knockout in each of those losses.
For the victor, Alvarez may have to assess
his options a bit more carefully before his next ring return. A trip to the
Middleweight division is a certainty, but with a lack of name opponents in the
division there might be one last fight at 154 before the inevitable happens.
Lara confronted Alvarez post fight, but
neither Alvarez nor Golden Boy has shown interest in making a fight between the
two despite that they are the two best Junior Middleweights outside of
Mayweather. Alvarez has hoped that he
would challenge the winner of the Miguel Cotto/Sergio Martinez fight this June,
though there is an outside chance of Alvarez challenging fellow Golden Boy
stable-mate and WBO Middleweight champion Peter Quillin before that happens.
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