By Steve Kim, SecondsOut.com
On Saturday night at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California, the HBO broadcast begins with an expected slugfest between junior middleweights Alfredo “Perro” Angulo and Joel Julio. Between the two, they have 52 professional victories, with 45 of them coming by knockout. On paper, it has the looks of an all-action battle between two bangers. But, of course, that was the case last year when Angulo was matched against Kermit Cintron, who proceeded to outbox Angulo from the outside.
So will it be, as Yogi Berra once famously uttered, be deja vu’ all over again?
"He’s been talking about how he’s going to knock us out. But I expect him to go on the outside and fight," said Angulo, through Miguel Salazar, outside the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California. Salazar continued, "I think they all say what they gotta say but, at the end, they’re going to go out and do their work. We’re going to do what we have to, cut the corners and go for the knockout."
Angulo is a hard-hitting grinder, one that thrives on opponents sitting in the pocket with him. He’s no Fred Astaire; lateral movement and a good long jab from the outside will always trouble him. The book is now out on Angulo, box and move on him. But can Julio, who’s known as a puncher, execute that type of game plan?
"Joel Julio is a tough fighter; he has a top-ten ranking. He’s won 35 fights, 31 by knockout, only three losses. It’s not an easy fight for ’Perro,’" said his trainer Clemente Medina. “’Perro’s’ in great shape; he’s working with Roberto Garcia, very good rounds. So, I think for the fight, we never say, ’’Perro’s’ going to knock him out.’ But I think ’Perro’ wins."
But like just about anyone else that will face Angulo, will Julio try and put a leash on ’Perro’ from the outside? Angulo and his trainer believe that there were mitigating circumstances to that night in Hollywood, Florida, last May. "Yeah, Cintron boxed for that fight, but everybody knows that ’Perro’ was sick for that fight. Maybe if he’s not sick it’s another story. But right now, ’Perro’ is in great shape. Anybody that comes to ’Perro’, he knocks them out. But when you get in there, they run and move."
The fighter says, "The week of the fight I had a stomach virus; I got a little sick. The day of the fight I was 159 and Cintron was 170. I felt a little sick the week of the fight."
From a fan’s perspective, you hope that Julio does what he does best: bang. He tried to back up and employ lateral movement against the hard-charging James Kirkland last year and proceeded to get run over. Angulo-Julio could be a barn-burner if both fighters stay true to form.
"I would hope so," said Gary Shaw, who promotes Angulo. "I’m sure he’s going to come right at Angulo; that’s what Angulo likes and I’m hoping that it’s a five, six round fight. But I will tell you, I have a lot of respect for Julio; he can punch and Angulo’s got to be able to take that punch. The question is, can Joel Julio take getting stalked from the opening bell?"
The reality of Angulo is that, whether or not he has any type of illness coming into a fight, he is not a speed merchant and is a slow starter; certain styles will always give him trouble. Therefore, he will be prone to getting out-pointed by those who are willing to fight safely and conservatively. But the thing about Angulo is simple- you can’t take the fight out of this dog. Win, lose or draw, he consistently makes for entertaining fights and good TV.
Isn’t that more important than any undefeated record?
"100-percent," agreed Shaw, who says that the precise reason why Angulo was put right back on “The Network of Champions” was his proclivity for making fun fights. "I’m not even sure the names even make a difference. I think the fan-friendly fighters are the answer. So I gotta give credit to Ross Greenburg and Kery Davis, who immediately after the Cintron fight, said, ’We’re with Angulo; he’s staying on our air. He makes exciting fights.’ And look, Arturo Gatti, who helped make the network at HBO, he sure didn’t have the undefeated, unblemished record.
"So it’s about the fighters and great fights."
NO RESPECT
Both Angulo and Shaw were a bit miffed at the perceived lack of respect given to them for this promotion, which is headlined by the heavyweight bout between Chris Arreola and Tomasz Adamek. The lead promoter for “Ring of Fire” is Dan Goossen, who reps Arreola.
"Look, I’m not going to term it as disrespect; Dan can term it anyway he wants. I thought originally when HBO proposed [it] that we’d do a co-promotion with Angulo and Arreola; it would be great for the west coast, great for the L.A. area. Two Mexicans doing great Mexican business, press conference at Olvera St. to build up. When it came to it, it was nothing," said Shaw, on Tuesday afternoon, at the open workout for the fighters at the Nokia Plaza at L.A. Live, which was eventually scrapped as it started to rain. "Angulo was just a blip on the radar. He even showed me in the gym how small his name is on the poster. They did an opening press conference; he wasn’t invited. So it is what it is. Whatever the reason Dan did it this way, he’s a promoter. I respect him as a promoter and Angulo just said to me yesterday, ’They didn’t need me for this whole promotion. I’m not going to the press conference.’"
But they did show up to the open workout, which basically turned into a media luncheon at the near-by ESPN Zone as the rains came, after threatening to no-show.
"We changed our mind together," explained Shaw." He said, ’Look, they’re might be some fans out there.’ He don’t want to diss the fans. He knows that at a press conference, there’s very little fans, especially since he wasn’t blown up as one of the fighters at the press conference. So he felt that he should come out here."
But this begs the question, wasn’t part of the reason why a promoters’ union was formed so that there would be better working relationships between the promoters? The reality is this, if this fight was in Newark, New Jersey, where Adamek packs them in, they’d have 20,000 at the Prudential Center. They’d be thrilled to get half of that amount in Ontario this weekend. Doesn’t a fighter like Angulo need to get a push?
"Look, it surprises me," said Shaw, "If somebody would give me an Angulo on one of my cards to help me sell tickets and whatever, we should all be doing what’s best for boxing, period. So why not blow up and make it an event, rather than just about one fighter? I don’t get it. I’m looking around, there’s no fliers, no posters. I don’t see anything that has Angulo and Julio, which is a great fight. But whatever, I’m not the promoter of the show."
MEDIA DAZE
Shortly after posting this picture of the proceedings on Tuesday afternoon on my Twitter page ( http://twitpic.com/1h3u1h), I received this tweet by Chipp7, "It looks pretty empty there at Nokia. I wish they would do these things when us working stiffs can see them."
Y’ know, I can’t argue that. Unless it’s a fight of major magnitude (like anything involving a Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather), it’s hard to get the public out to these type of functions on weekdays. The “Ring of Fire” open workout was held on Tuesday around noon and even before it got wet, the audience was sparse. Functions like this usually have to be staged on the weekend.
But a good point was brought up; why not just have this open workout later in the day or evening? LA Live, has become quite the destination for a lot of people, after a hard day’s work. Later on this particular day, was the Lakers playoff game against the OKC Thunder. Now, I don’t know if, logistically, if it would’ve been possible to do it at that point, but the old argument about having to have these events early in the day so that the newspaper writers can make their deadlines doesn’t really seem to hold water nowadays.
First of all, newspapers, for the most part, have an online platform and most websites don’t really have hard deadlines at all. I’m sure there are other issues to contend with; you have fighters and trainers that may not want to disrupt their normal training schedules, but if you’re going to stage open, public workouts, shouldn’t they be done at a time when the public can actually attend them?
THE GOOD DIE YOUNG?
Is it just me, or do you find it a tad disconcerting all the concern over the unfinished career and unfulfilled potential of the late Edwin Valero? When the real concern, first and foremost, should have been over his murdered wife and now, the two orphaned kids that remain. To me, whether he could’ve one day beaten Timmy Bradley, Marcos Maidana and eventually Manny Pacquiao and become one of the all-time greats is inconsequential. In fact, it was this pure focus on his ability as a boxer and what he could accomplish that played a part in his downfall. There was a big priority on his career, but, unfortunately, not enough attention paid to his personal demons.
Feel sorry for his wife and kids. Valero? Well, not so much. Not to sound callous, but you could make a strong argument that the world is a safer place now that we no longer have to contend with his pathological behavior. Yeah, you could argue he needed help. You could also argue he wasn’t in any rush to receive it.
But this goes to another theory I have, nothing does as much for your reputation and legacy as dying early. Whether it’s Tupac, Biggie, or James Dean, do some notable things early in your career and then pass away prematurely, you will be given legendary status whether you deserve it or not. Because at this point, it’s all speculation and you really haven’t had time to screw up. In fact, as it relates to boxing, just having your career truncated does wonders for your reputation. Just look at the examples of Tony Ayala Jr. and Ike Ibeabuchi, two highly fractured individuals whose infractions with the law took away their livelihoods. But some swear that they were legends in the making, monsters of the ring who others were lucky to have never come across.
When history actually shows us that the real greats usually have an abundance of character, not a lack of it.
But pretty soon, Valero’s legendary status will reach a point where folks will be saying he would’ve been the guy to topple the Klitschko brothers. But really, does it matter, what he could’ve, should’ve and might’ve done?
ON-THE-CLOCK-FLURRIES
I was told that a bout between undefeated junior middles Vanes Martirosyan and Joe Greene will lead off the June 5th HBO broadcast at Yankee Stadium before Miguel Cotto and Yuri Foreman do battle...Shane Mosley said he has never tested positive for steroids. Well, isn’t that precisely the reason he went to BALCO?...Eloy Perez defends his NABO junior lightweight title against Gilberto Sanchez-Leon on the Mayweather-Mosley undercard on May 1st in Las Vegas...I remember as a kid when the NFL Draft was on a weekday early in the morning and I could only see the first few picks before going off to school. Then they moved it to Sunday afternoon. Then it was all weekend. Now, it’s a Thursday night prime-time affair. Amazing how this affair has grown in stature...Great opening match-up in the NFL between N’Awlins and Minnesota on Sept. 9th...Speaking of New Orleans, I think “Treme” on HBO is worth sticking with. I’ve given it two episodes and I think it’s gathering momentum...This Thursday night will be my first “Fight Night Club” of 2010 as I’ve been out of town for the first couple of installments at the “Club Nokia”...Any questions or comments can be directed to k9kim@yahoo.com and you can follow me at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing. You can also become a Facebook fan of Maxboxing at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing
Source: secondsout.com
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