Well before Canelo Alvarez was thoroughly circled about and embarrassed by Floyd Mayweather, Jr., throngs of die hard fans of the pale rider from Jalisco, Mexico were already placing him towards the top of the sport.
No sooner than when loss numero uno came for the twenty three year old boxer were the calls of “too much and too soon”.
The box office receipts from a particular Saturday evening last September weren’t too proud to beg to differ. Live gate and pay TV records were surpassed monetarily more than quantifiably and that is what Las Vegas is all about.
Canelo is back and he’s skipping a tune-up sort of contest for his return, unless the potential for getting his pretty face mangled by a maniacal type of fighter is his idea of refreshing.
Enter Alfredo “El Perro” Angulo on March 8, 2014 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The twelve round super welterweight bout known as “Toe to Toe” will surely attract the hardcore fans of boxing, although this time there will be no sort of cross cultural divide in the stands.
There will be times before the fight to compare and contrast beyond the obvious. The “Cinnamon versus The Dog” matchup will of course pit two Mexican combatants within the ring, however many of the similarities slam head on into a granite slab after that.
A 2004 Olympian, Alfredo Angulo (22-3, 18 KO’s) was presented with a different path of blood and sweat, and he wasn’t coddled along in any way past or present in the same fashion as Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-1-1, 30 KO’s). Most of us are now well aware of Canelo’s story.
Alfredo Angulo was steamrolling through most of his competition and had compiled a 15-0 professional record with twelve knockouts (many early KO’s) until he faced Kermit Cintron nearly five years ago. He lost because Cintron respected the power of “El Perro” and kept him at jab’s length for much of the HBO televised contest. But Angulo rebounded less than three months later on ESPN and absolutely crushed middleweight contender Gabriel “King” Rosado in two rounds and placed Harry Joe Yorgey inside a vertical nap later on in 2009.
Who could ever forget his “Hagler/Hearns-esque” six round war with James Kirkland?
Much like a guts before glory battle, the man who punched last would go on to win. Two fights came after his seven month lockup at a United States Immigration detention center and then he would go on to lose a heartbreaking stoppage loss to Erislandy Lara. After nearly ten rounds of back and forth action, Alfredo suffered a ghastly eye injury and could not continue, although he likely wanted to do so.
His reward seems to be a shot at knocking off a Mexican anomaly in Vegas. To label him as a Mexican warrior is fair and accurate, but to tag him as several rungs down the ladder is a mistake.
Hopefully, toe-to-toe is what we’ll get, although the fighters are not so easily tagged. Canelo doesn’t always push the action early, but “El Perro” could easily change his mind. The scary thought is of another possible debacle similar to Alvarez’s April 2013 bout with Austin Trout. The ringside tally of a wash was actually more of a dusting. Unless Angulo absolutely guts his opponent in March, count on neither a decision victory nor the chance for a rematch.
For those who are collectively moaning in unison to the tune of a dying chicken over the likely fifty dollar (a generous estimate) pay per view price for “Toe to Toe”, at least it’s not Latin Fury 655 with Julio “Who’s He, Yo?” Cesar Chavez, Jr. as the selling point.
That, dear friends was highway or closer to home, tollway robbery. What will pinch our wallets where it hurts will sadly be the three punch combination PPV shopping cart we accumulate after Canelo is followed soon thereafter by Manny and Money in April and May, respectively.
What may be somewhat of interest could be the upcoming installments of “All Access”, the well packaged and presented infomercial made possible by the Showtime network. Both fighters and both camps will be profiled with one glaring exception from previous episodes, which will of course come in the form of two foreign fighters who don’t speak English.
The bout itself is perhaps a worthy pay per view telecast, if just barely. Unfortunately, Canelo is now a brand and there are site fees to be paid upwards of ten million dollars or more.
The ticket prices are the usual smoke and mirrors. The $25 seats will be a major selling point, although they’ll evaporate faster than Jimmy Hoffa.
Why?
Because a fight in Las Vegas is ridiculously more expensive than almost anywhere else. The $25, $50 and $100 price range is what the common fan would care to spend and so the $200, $400 and inexplicably priced $600 seats for a 16,000 seat arena are what is left over in the end. Hopefully, it all works out for the parties involved.
This may be a fight night party where you invite even those you’d like to punch if it means they’ll chip in a dead Lincoln or Hamilton towards the cable fund.
