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As expected, Canelo Alvarez will meet Alfredo Angulo on Showtime pay-per-view on March 8 from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, with Golden Boy's Eric Gomez telling BoxingScene.com that the fight has been finalized. Gomez got right on the hype train, too:
"This fight is going to be fireworks from the opening bell. Angulo is very dangerous fighter and he's very hungry. Before the fight with Lara, the critics thought it would be a mismatch. In that fight, Angulo showed those critics what he is capable of. He had Lara down twice and the fight was on the table when Angulo injured his eye. If Angulo's eye wasn't injured in that round, who knows what would have happened. Canelo has something to prove after the Mayweather fight. He wants to make a big statement. Canelo could have taken a much easier fight. He wanted to test himself against a tough opponent, with a good chin and a very hard punch. I expect a war. I don't think either guy is going to take a step back," Gomez told BoxingScene.com.
Angulo (22-3, 18 KO) has historically not done very well against his better opposition, losing to Lara, James Kirkland, and Kermit Cintron. His best wins have come against the likes of Gabriel Rosado and Joel Julio.
Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer says that the fight will be personal, and that Angulo and Canelo (42-1-1, 30 KO) do not like one another:
"They do not like each other. There is some rivalry there. I do not know where it's coming from, but I know that based on my conversations with both guys - they really can't stand each other. I had to overcome that sort of sentiment with Canelo, who said 'I don't want this guy to make money off of me.' I had to overcome that, negotiate it through and get it done. I'm really excited about it."
Good thing Richard overcame the struggles.
Canelo-Angulo is a solid fight given that Alvarez is coming off of a loss, though a marginal PPV headliner and only viable in that area because Alvarez is a major star. There will be action because Angulo can't fight without it, and Schaefer said he plans to go on the attack himself and try to put together an action undercard which could feature Omar Figueroa vs Ricardo Alvarez, Jorge Linares vs Nihito Arakawa, and perhaps Leo Santa Cruz vs Cristian Mijares. Those are all promising action matchups.
Do you give Angulo much more than a puncher's chance in this fight? Will Alvarez come back strong from his loss, or could that impact his March performance? What other general thoughts do you have?