A promotional company pitting two of its best fighters against each other is not exactly a common occurrence. But that’s what Golden Boy Promotions is doing with James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo, who Saturday will square off in a WBC junior middleweight title elimination fight in Mexico (on HBO).
Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy, was asked why he is doing something a lot of promoters would not.
“It’s one of those fights people get excited about,” Schaefer said of what is almost a can’t-miss barnburner. “If you look at 154 pounds, I think this is one of the most exciting punch-for-punch fights one can put together. It’s not easy to please HBO to get these dates as they have very high standards on who they accept as fights; that is one of the fights they wanted.
“I talked to the fighters and they were willing to do it. It’s a high risk for either one of those fighters and for us as well. And talk about excitement, this fight has excitement written all over it.”
Schaefer agreed boxing needs more of this.
“Yeah, I think that is what people want to see,” Schaefer said. “Boxing is entertainment and people want to be entertained with action fights. They want to watch boxing, they don’t want to see dancing. Otherwise they can go watch Dancing with the Stars.”
Would Winner Face Alvarez?
Since Saul “Canelo” Alvarez – also promoted by Golden Boy – is the WBC junior middleweight champion, it would seem that he would fight the winner of Kirkland-Angulo. But Schaefer said he wasn’t sure – in this case – if the rules stipulate Alvarez must immediately face the winner.
That said, Schaefer said there is no way Alvarez is looking past Kermit Cintron to anyone else. Alvarez will defend his belt against Cintron on Nov. 26 in Mexico City (on HBO).
“You look at Alvarez and where he stands, he’s taking on Cintron in what is going to be a very difficult and very dangerous fight,” Schaefer said. “Cintron is a big puncher and if you remember, he beat Angulo.”
Schaefer went on to say there is a possibility that Alvarez will next take on middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.; he said he has already talked to Arum (Chavez’s promoter) about such a fight. Schaefer said he could definitely see Alvarez perhaps taking on the winner of Angulo-Kirkland after that.
“Absolutely,” Schaefer said. “Canelo wants to be in big fights, he wants to be in exciting fights. But we don’t want to look too far ahead, especially with Canelo facing such a dangerous opponent like Cintron. That would be ill-advised to think about who is next after that.
“But Canelo is not going to be the type of guy who is going to duck anyone.”
Cintron, 32, does have a fine record of 33-4-1 with 28 knockouts. He did defeat Angulo via decision in 2009 and even had a draw with Sergio Martinez that year. But Cintron’s lackluster performance in a one-sided loss to Carlos Molina in July at Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., had reporters on press row wondering if Cintron had anything left.
Cintron came back from that setback to defeat Antwone Smith via unanimous decision in August in Missouri.
