As for Angulo, one would argue it’s been less fast-track than that of Canelo. At 31-years-old the Mexican slugger has taken a more traditional path, facing anyone anywhere just to keep moving forward. Outside of the ring, he’s faced just as many obstacles that have slowed his progress. Most notably, in the form of an expired work visa. When Angulo voluntarily surrendered to a U.S. immigration center to resolve the issue, he was told he’d be detained for three days. Three days turned into eight months. Anyone tuning into Showtime’s All Access: Canelo v. Angulo can’t help but have sympathized with his plight. Nonetheless Angulo has soldiered on and his efforts in and out of the ring have resulted in this Canelo bout.
The Outcome
Backgrounds aside, we’re putting our money on Canelo to win this one, either by unanimous decision or late round stoppage. Angulo’s style is tailor made for Canelo. He wades straight in and does not have a tremendous amount of speed. Angulo often depends on finding the range in which he can connect and when he does his power and combination punching take care of the rest. This is something the Canelo camp is clearly aware of. In the pre-fight press conference Canelo stated,
“Alfredo Angulo is a very strong fighter, and he knows how to come forward. He knows how to throw a punch and take a punch and he comes to fight. I’m sure you want to see a fight and you don’t want to see a guy who is going to be running all night.”
In this case Canelo is the superior boxer with just as much power as Angulo. After the Mayweather bout Canelo has been quite vocal about his desire to increase his technical game. As such we anticipate that his game plan will be just that – a technical one – a measured attack in which he boxes and effectively mixes combinations to both the head and body to weaken Angulo should the bout go to the later rounds. It’s a stage of the bout in which Angulo has had difficulty. Although Canelo can, and will, trade with Angulo you can bet he will rely heavily on boxing rather than slugging.
The Wildcards
While this is how we see it playing out, this is boxing ladies and gentlemen and anything can happen. So what are some wildcards? For Canelo, it’s PTMD (post-traumatic Mayweather disorder). You just never know how a fighter will bounce back from a loss, especially a previously undefeated fighter. Canelo has said all the right things to the media, in the pre-fight presser he addressed the loss,
“I can’t tell you all the things I learned from my last fight, but there is a long list. I don’t take it as a loss. I take it as a learning experience. And that is what’s going to keep me going. That’s the greatest thing about this sport. You learn and you move on.”
While we think Canelo is over the first loss of his career, only a dominant performance can tell for sure.
