WBC Light Middleweight Title Eliminator: Angulo v. Kirkland

By Shaun McElreath

On Saturday November 5th, 2011 in Centro de Cancun in Quintana Roo, Mexico, WBO interim light middleweight champ Alfredo Angulo (20-1 17 wins via KO) will fight James Kirkland (29 -1 , 26 via knockout) in a WBC Light Middleweight Title Eliminator bout. Both these men are “action fighters” so this bout has all the potential in the world to be a very exciting fight and decide the next WBC light middleweight champion.

Interim WBO Light Middleweight champ Alfredo Angulo was on fast track for stardom winning his first 15 fights (12 via knockout) until dropping a unanimous decision to the always tough, Kermit Cintron. After his first career loss, Anuglo racked up five straight wins all by way of KO/TKO. His last two bouts have not even made it out of the first round, as he won them both via knockout.

Visa issues with the U.S. are the biggest problem Alfredo Angulo lately in his boxing career. This fight will be taking place in Mexico and should he win, becoming the WBC light middleweight champ needs to eliminate the issue, allowing for a fight on American soil to produce more fans and generate bigger revenues. He has a lot of past fights in the states with California being one of his most featured venues and also became professional in Arizona.

As Kirkland had success before turning pro with a 134-12 record and winning the Silver Gloves Championship four years in a row, ultimately losing to James Patterson in the finals of the National Golden Gloves. The loss helped him in making the decision to become professional as a mean to provide for his family instead of go to the Olympics. He won 11 straight fights as a professional before being convicted of armed robbery and losing two and a half years of his career in jail.

Upon coming out of the penitentiary, James won 14 straight fights before going on a two year leave from the sport. Since his return in early 2011 he has stayed very busy, winning two fights via KO both in the first two rounds, before a very shocking TKO loss to Nobuhiro Ishida in the first round. Ishida only had 7 KO’s in 29 fights, so perhaps this wasn’t Kirkland’s best day. After the first loss of his career to Ishida, he got back on track beating his next two opponents in the first two rounds both by knockout.

This fight has fireworks written all over it! Who do you think is going to win, and how do you think they will achieve victory? Feel free to comment in the sections below or on article links on our Facebook page