With the biggest fight of his career looming just a few weeks away, junior middleweight Alfredo Angulo knows what’s at stake come March 8 when he faces off with former titleholder Saul “Canelo” Alvarez at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Nev.
Although Angulo is heading into the Canelo fight coming off a TKO loss to Erislandy Lara, he has always gave his all to the sport, something that he thinks helped earn him this bout.
“Yes, you know, I’m very grateful. I want to thank, once again, Richard Schaefer and the entire team at Golden Boy Promotions for this opportunity, for having the confidence in me so that I can be in this kind of fight,” Angulo said in a conference call. “But at the same time I feel that I won my spot, I won my spot through my hard work and my style of fighting. I’ve always given 100 percent up in that ring, and I’ve given it my all, so I kind of feel that I won my spot, and there’s a reason why I’m in this fight. This is a very, very big opportunity for me and I want to take full advantage. “
Whether it be by decision or early stoppage Angulo is not preparing for the bout to accomplish either one specifically, he just wants to be victorious anyway he can get it.
“I’m training to win. I’m training to win whatever happens, whether it goes the distance, or if the knockout comes, I’m training to win. “
Despite being picked apart by Floyd Mayweather in September, Canelo is a dangerous fighter with plenty of power behind his punches, something that is not being overlooked by Angulo’s camp.
“Of course his style concerns me. Anybody that Alfredo, or any other fighter in the stable, who he goes up against concerns me,” Angulo’s trainer Virgil Hunter said. “He’s a good fighter. He’s proven that. And he’s not anybody to be playing with in the ring, so of course his style concerns me.”
Hunter also has super middleweight champion Andre Ward in his stable of fighters, someone Angulo has sparred against in the past to prepare for fights. Ward had some complementary words about Angulo and his chance against Alvarez due to him being able to shorten the ring.
“He’s [Ward] got a lot of talent, experience, and he’s got a lot of qualities that are superior to Canelo,” Angulo stated. “So I know that it’s helping me, and to be able to be in that ring with Andre Ward, it’s a plus for me and it’s a positive. I’m very grateful to him for the work, for the nice comments, because he knows how important this fight is to me. “
Angulo suffered a fairly serious eye injury in his bout with Lara, something that Hunter says will not be an issue versus Canelo, as it wasn’t as big of a deal as originally thought.
“Just to the injuries on his eye, other than swelling, wasn’t what people assumed it was, and it was unfortunate because the diagnosis that night was done in the ring before he even stepped out, and it wasn’t by a doctor it was speculation by someone else,” Hunter explained. “The injury was definitely an abrasion on the cornea, what the ophthalmologist felt was pretty much like a poke or something like that, and we’ll leave it at that.”
After a slew of Golden Boy fighters pulling off career defining victories as of late [i.e. Carlos Maidana defeating Adrien Broner, Jhonny Gonzalez besting Abner Mares etc…] Angulo hopes to continue the trend March 8.
“God willing, it’s going to be that way. That’s what I want, that’s what I’m working for, and it will happen that way,” Angulo said.
