Caleb Truax out, Roamer Alexis Angulo in against David Benavidez April 18th

Good news: Caleb Truax has withdrawn from his planned April 18th Showtime bout against David Benavidez, sparing us a gruesome mismatch. Bad news: the replacement ain’t all that great. Mike Coppinger reports that Benavidez, the WBC super middleweight champion, is set for a hometown defense against Roamer Alexis Angulo in Phoenix.

Colombia’s Angulo (26-1, 22 KO) got his first taste of real competition in 2018, when he went from smashing journeyman Evert Bravo to challenging Gilberto Ramirez for the WBO belt. That proved predictably one-sided, but after a pair of get-well victories, he stepped up once again against undefeated prospect Anthony Sims Jr. Things went a bit better for the 35-year-old thanks to a listless performance from Sims, which allowed Angulo to walk away with a split decision victory in January.

He’ll have no such luxury against the all-action Benavidez (22-0, 19 KO), who battered Anthony Dirrell last September to reclaim the belt he’d lost to a failed drug test. The WBC ordered him to face Avni Yildirim immediately afterwards, but the latter is still recovering from surgery.

This is a stylistic nightmare for Angulo; even if that gaudy KO% is a legitimate indication of his power, slugging it out with Benavidez is unwise at best and borderline suicidal at worst. Should be entertaining while it lasts, though, like the time the Mythbusters vaporized a car.