The earlier-reported possible heavyweight clash between Cristobal Arreola and Tomasz Adamek for April 24 on HBO is still out there as a possibility, and today BoxingScene.com's Rick Reeno says that an undercard bout between interim junior middleweight titleholder Alfredo Angulo and Joel Julio is a possibility for the same show.
Reeno says it would all come down to an agreement between the promoters, as Dan Goossen has the HBO date for Arreola, and would need to hammer out the details with Angulo's promoter Gary Shaw. As much as Shaw has done to promote Angulo on HBO, I don't see why he'd possibly balk on this one.
Angulo (17-1, 14 KO) rather ridiculously won the interim WBO junior middleweight title against Harry Joe Yorgey in a brutally one-sided bout in November. There was talk that he could face full WBO titlist Sergiy Dzinziruk in April or May, but that won't be happening.
Instead, he'll face past Dzinziruk victim Julio (35-3, 31 KO). Julio has failed to live up to past "Prospect of the Year"-type hype, and has lost to all the best fighters he's faced, those being Carlos Quintana, Dzinziruk and James Kirkland.
That said, every single one of those guys is a southpaw. Two of them (Quintana and Dzinziruk) are tricky matchups as boxers, and Kirkland is simply the most aggressive beast there is in the sport today.
Angulo is a right-handed fighter and there's not a single trick about him. "Here he comes" is how you can sum up Angulo's style. If Julio were to try and box Angulo, this really could be the upset win he needs to avoid being officially branded nothing more than a powerful opponent for top guys. Kermit Cintron -- a puncher himself who had never shown any great ability to put on a boxing clinic -- went out and boxed Angulo to death last May, and it turned his career around.
This matchup seems eerily similar if it goes through, which makes it kind of interesting.