Khan vs Molina undercard: Alfredo Angulo back on December 15, but won't face Delvin Rodriguez

Alfredo Angulo will make a quick return to the ring on December 15 as part of the Amir Khan vs Carlos Molina bill on Showtime, but won't be facing Delvin Rodriguez. Dan Rafael of ESPN.com reports that Rodriguez's team didn't want to take a fight of this level on less than a month's notice, which is completely understandable:

"We would love the fight if we had a little more notice, but for this type of fight at this point in his career Delvin knows that it's vital that he gives himself the best possible chance to win," said Star Boxing matchmaker Ron Katz. "We're willing to do the fight with proper notice, not 3½-week notice. But we're thankful they even offered us the opportunity and I truly wish we could have done it because I like the fight, Delvin likes the fight, Joe likes the fight and [Rodriguez's manager] A.J. Galante likes the fight."

Hopefully, this is a fight that can be revisited early in 2013. Golden Boy and Showtime have a three big shows in the hopper already -- Alexander vs Brook on January 19, Garcia vs Judah on February 9, and Bernard Hopkins on March 9 -- and Angulo vs Rodriguez would still be a good fight on any of those cards.

Rodriguez (26-6-3, 14 KO) was rather lousy in his last fight, a loss to Austin Trout on June 2, but that was more a result of the fighters' styles clashing badly than anything. Against aggressive, come-forward fighters, Rodriguez is entertaining and very credible, and early feelings among some fans on our site was that Delvin could have been a real task for Angulo, who is powerful and great fun to watch, but also slow, somewhat limited, and still getting his feet wet with new trainer Virgil Hunter.

Without Rodriguez, you can expect something closer to Angulo's November 10 fight, a one-minute blowout of Raul Casarez.