Angulo Acknowledges His Opportunity and Feels He’s Earned It

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Recently the phrase “winning the lottery” in boxing has been applied to fighters that have been chosen next to fight the Pound for Pound king Floyd Mayweather. Now it seems that any fighter that steps in with Canelo Alvarez has as well won the proverbial “lottery” as well.

The next fighter to step into the ring with Alvarez is the tough Alfredo “El Perro” Angulo. Coming off his third loss, second loss by TKO, many think that Angulo was selected by Alvarez and his team because he is a come forward fighter that seems to suit Alvarez style better than the other names that were in the hat such as Carlos Molina and Erislandy Lara; both of whom are boxers that have been known to negate offense by using great footwork and defense.

One thing is for sure Angulo is going to pressure Alvarez and show us in the boxing community what Canelo is made of in the ring. Although Angulo is coming off a TKO loss to the Erislandy Lara in which Angulo chose not to continue due to a hematoma over his left eye that was suffered in the fight, Angulo thinks that his toughness in the ring and his exciting past fights have shown that he has more than earned his shot at Canelo.

“Feel that I won my spot, I won my spot through my hard work and my style of fighting. I’ve always given 100 percent up in that ring, and I’ve given it my all, so I kind of feel that I won my spot, and there’s a reason why I’m in this fight. This is a very, very big opportunity for me and I want to take full advantage.”

Angulo continued to say, “Canelo decided to fight against me is because he’s a smart fighter and he knows that he wanted to prove to his fans that he’s ready to fight a good fighter, a fighter that’s very strong, and most importantly, a fighter that makes exciting fights. I know that I’ve proven throughout my career that I always give exciting fights, and I think that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to make a good show and we’re going to put on an exciting fight.”

In September of last year in one of the biggest spectacles boxing has seen in years Canelo suffered his fight loss in a one sided contest to Floyd Mayweather. Losing is part of the sport and if one thing is for sure, losing to a high level fighter sometimes teaches you more than winning against a lower class fighter. Both Canelo and Angulo lost in the last time out to slick Olympic tested boxers and although the styles are comparable, Angulo thinks that the fights were completely different.

“Canelo is coming off a loss to Floyd Mayweather, the pound for pound No. 1 fighter in the world, and in that fight he hardly touched him. My fight, I’m coming off a loss to one of the best fighters in the world, and that is Erislandy Lara, and in a fight that arguably I was winning. It was a very, very entertaining fight, a very exciting fight, and I was possibly winning the fight. So, both fights were very, very different.”

All too often in boxing we see judge score fights in a manner in that leave many wondering how they came to score the fight the way they did. When a fighter now gets in the ring with a media and fan powerhouse like Canelo, fighters feel you can’t leave it up to the judges. Angulo is not worried about the decision and says he is training hard and sparring with the likes of Andre Ward and Amir Khan to prepare himself for whatever happens including going all 12 rounds.

“I’m training to win. I’m training to win whatever happens, whether it goes the distance, or if the knockout comes, I’m training to win”