Southern California Notebook By Doug Fischer (May 15, 2008) Photo © German Villasenor Send this page to friend Give us your feedback Alfred Angulo doesn’t have the hype that Yuriorkis Gamboa has going into this Saturday’s HBO-televised ‘Boxing After Dark’ triple header from Primm, Nevada that he shares with the 2004 Olympic gold medalist from Cuba and fellow undefeated junior middleweight prospect James Kirkland. Angulo doesn’t have the degree of natural talent (particularly explosive hand speed) that both Gamboa and Kirkland possess nor does he have the high rankings among the sanctioning organizations of his promotional peers (both Gamboa and Kirkland are already rated by the WBA and WBC), but I have to agree with the card’s promoter, Gary Shaw, who told Steve Kim earlier in the week “if there is a sleeper fight, I think it’ll be Angulo because I think he's overlooked...” Not for long. Angulo, a member of Mexico’s ’04 Olympic squad, earned the attention of hardcore U.S. boxing fans with three consecutive impressive showings on Showtime’s ‘ShoBox’ series that resulted in quickie KOs. If the Mexicali native can be just as impressive (against what looks to be his toughest opponent) on HBO Saturday night, he will graduate from being an underground sensation to a legitimate prospect. All three undefeated fighters on Saturday’s card are matched tough, but I think Angulo’s opponent – Richard Gutierrez, a physically strong and strong-willed Colombian whose only pro loss was a spirited tussle with Josh Clottey – has the kind of aggressive style that will result in the most sustained action of the three featured bouts when combined with the 25-year-old Mexican’s usual come-forward assault. Angulo-Gutierrez should produce the kind of fireworks that were once expected on HBO’s B.A.D. broadcasts and I like “Perro” (Spanish for ‘dog’) to come out victorious in part because the Colombian is coming up from 147 pounds to face the natural 154 pounder, but mostly because Angulo has put in the work. Angulo, who resides in Coachella and usually trains in the greater L.A. area, is a tireless grinder in the gym who is more than willing to add miles to his car’s odometer in search of quality sparring. In late March and early April, Angulo bounced between the La Habra Boxing Club in Orange County where he sparred with Alfonso Gomez (who was preparing for his title shot vs. Miguel Cotto) and the PAL gym in Montebello where he bumped heads with Antonio Margarito (who was getting ready for his rematch with Kermit Cintron on the same Atlantic City card). Often times, Angulo, who holds a 12-0 (9) record, sparred with Margarito and Gomez in the same day. Angulo, who is trained by Clemente Medina, kept up his gym gypsy ways in late April and the first two weeks of this month by traveling to the Wild Card to get quality rounds in with super middleweight title challenger Sam Soliman and prospects Craig McEwan and Rashad Hollaway during the week, and then to the Maywood Boxing Club to work with former welterweight title challenger Sebastian Lujan and lightweight standout Jose Armando Santa Cruz on the weekends. According to Medina, Angulo usually works 12-round sparring sessions during the peak of his training camps. At the Wild Card he’d go four rounds each with the tireless Soliman, the stick-and-moving Holloway and the undefeated (10-0) leftie McEwan. At the Maywood gym Angulo would work a grueling eight rounds with Lujan, the rugged Argentine who is best known for getting his ear ripped in half by Margarito but is coming off wild fifth-round KO of countryman and fellow banger Walter Mathysse, before going four rounds with Santa Cruz (whose “walk-around” weight is around 150 pounds). Two Saturdays ago (May 3rd), I watched Angulo work four rounds with the uncrowned “real” lightweight champ at the Maywood Boxing Club (and lucky for you hardcore knuckleheads out there Rick Reeno was in town with his trusty video camera catching all the action). I liked what I saw in Angulo, who I dismissed as a one-dimensional brawler after watching him struggle in his pro debut and take too many punches in a few of his early pro bouts. Against the awkward and swarming Santa Cruz, Angulo worked a stiff, well-timed jab and patiently stepped around the naturally smaller but rangier fighter. By the second round, both aggressive boxers traded punches with their usual frequency but Angulo’s shots were more technically sound and landed with more sharpness. The junior middleweight allowed the giant lightweight to be the aggressor and instead of matching Santa Cruz’s activity, he utilized decent footwork to avoid the attacks. Rounds three and four were fun to watch as both fighters dropped combinations while stepping into each other’s range. Santa Cruz timed lead hooks followed by hard right crosses from the outside as he lunged forward. Angulo willingly backed to the ropes, where he fired back with rapid one-twos (most of which were blocked by Santa Cruz) and choice body shots (that did find the mark). Lujan wasn’t around that day, so Angulo got his 12 rounds in by going four with 130-pound contender Urbano Antillon and four more with Medina’s son Emmanuel, a 141-pound amateur boxer. Angulo’s work with Medina’s kid was light but the four rounds he boxed with Antillon were surprisingly brisk and brutal given Urbano’s diminutive size. Because of the size difference Antillon was able to let his hands go with fight-level force and intensity. Matching the undefeated junior lightweight’s activity actually provided a good workout for Angulo. But sparring isn’t the only part of training that Angulo puts his heart into. I’ve watched him train on a regular basis for close three years and I’ve noticed that he never skips out on his sit-ups, bag work and other floor exercises. I’m told that he puts just as much effort into his road work. On the Thursday and Friday before his sparring session with Santa Cruz, Angulo accompanied Medina to the Chumash Casino where his trainer worked the corner of Juan Castaneda in the ShoBox-televised co-feature of that Shaw-promoted card. “Alfredo came with us because his brother-in-law was on the undercard,” said Medina, “but also to be close to his trainer and continue his camp. You should have seen the way he ran 10 miles up in the Santa Ynez hills. He’s in tremendous shape.” Because of his dedication to his craft and the resulting physical conditioning I have little doubt that Angulo will prevail Saturday night. My only wish is that he sticks with Medina once the sport’s spotlight focuses in on him. Medina, an excellent mitt man and underrated trainer, has been around for a long time and has worked with his share of talents, most of whom dumped him when they graduated from fighting on undercards to televised co-features and main events. Carlos “Famous” Hernandez, Francisco Bojado, and Vicente Escobedo are a few of the pros who ditched Medina as they climbed the ladder. The most recent boxer to jump off the Good Ship Medina was talented amateur boxer Said El Harrak, who traveled to Manchester to spar with Rick Hatton before the Mad Hatter’s showdown with Floyd Mayweather and never came back. I once heard Don King quote an old (and cynical) boxing adage about fighters and their allegiances to their trainers, managers and promoters. ‘The Don’ said: “Fighters have all the qualities of a dog – except loyalty”. Here’s hoping that “Perro” proves correct Mark Twain’s old saying “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you…” RUDY HERNANDEZ & GBP Maybe there’s a chance for peace in the Middle East. Rudy Hernandez, the fiery trainer/manger of Jose Armando Santa Cruz who has been less-than satisfied with the way Golden Boy Promotions has treated his lightweight contender and has had no problem airing his grievances to the media, has squashed his beef with Oscar De La Hoya’s L.A.-based promotional company. “I sat down with Richard Schaefer last Tuesday and we worked out everything concerning Jose Armando,” Hernandez told me the week of the De La Hoya-Forbes fight. “As soon as we sat down, Richard told me to ‘forget about everything that has transpired since we signed Santa Cruz and let’s start anew’. From what we talked about that day I’m convinced that Golden Boy Promotions has Jose’s best interest at heart. “Now it’s up to Jose to do his part and get in shape to win his next fight.” Santa Cruz’s next fight will be a WBC lightweight title eliminator with Mexico-based Colombian Antonio Pitalua. Last month, Pitalua’s co-promoter Ricardo Maldonado won a WBC purse bid to promote the 135-pound showdown on a June 14th card in Mexico City, but Hernandez tells me that Golden Boy Promotions is trying to move the fight to the U.S., preferably a June 27th Telefutura date at the Morongo Casino. Whatever happens with Santa Cruz, next month will be a busy one for Hernandez. His other lightweight standout, Urbano Antillon, is scheduled to appear on a June 6th Telefutura-televised Top Rank card in Reading, Pennsylvania, “probably against Leonardo Cruz,” Hernandez tells me. If Antillon, who has won his last five bouts by early-rounds KOs, wins and looks good next month, he might be able to secure a spot on the undercard of the close-to-being finalized Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito welterweight clash in July. I get a kick out of writing about Santa Cruz and Antillon progressing with their promising pro careers because I remember watching them train at the L.A. Boxing Club when they were skinny teenage amateur boxers 10 years ago. I may have caught a glimpse of two future fighters who could develop into world-class pros 10 years from now two Saturdays ago. Hernandez is training the younger brothers of former WBC featherweight champ Alejandro “Cobrita” Gonzalez – 13-year-old Oscar and 12-year-old Cristian – both of whom possess an abundance of natural ability. If I could have got Reeno to tape the kids’ sparring sessions and post it on YouTube we might have been able to capitalize on some of that “Pretty Boy Bam Bam” action. JORGE ARCE After watching Angulo and Cobrita’s little bros spar, I drove by Montebello’s PAL gym with Reeno in hopes of catching popular former 108-pound title holder Jorge Arce go a few rounds with former flyweight belt holder Isidro “Chino” Garcia. We just missed the Mexican boxing celebrity. Chino, who was still there with his handlers, informed me that Arce would be taking off to Mexico the following week to help promote the Top Rank and Fernando Beltran-promoted “Latin Fury 4” card that takes place this Saturday in Auguascalientes, Mexico. There’s little doubt in my mind that that Garcia would give Arce a tougher scrap than the unbeaten Thai fighter (Devid Lookmahanak) who is scheduled to take on “Travieso” in the main event of Saturday’s pay-per-view card (in the U.S.), but I’m also pretty sure that anywhere from 12,000 to 16,000 fans will pack the bullring arena hosting the show to watch the tiny might do his thing. Arce may not be the best fighter in the 115-pound division (that distinction will belong to the winner of the WBC/WBA title unification tilt between Crisitan Mijares and Alexander Munoz, which takes place the same night in Durango, Mexico and is also available on PPV in the U.S.), but he’s hands-down the most popular. The proof is in the numbers. Arce drew 7,500 to his fights in Hildalgo, Texas in late ’06 and in Anaheim, California last January and drew strong ratings on HBO, which televised those bouts on ‘B.A.D.’ broadcasts. The ticket buyers in the Texas border town and in Southern California had no idea who South Africa’s Hawk Makepula or who Argentina’s Julio Ler were and it didn’t matter – they were there to see Arce. And to his credit, Arce delivered with his usual brand of showmanship and blue-collar brutality. He did what he should have done with an older, shopworn veteran like Makepula, who he stopped in four rounds, and he somehow made the 12 one-sided rounds he went with Ler, who had no desire or intentions of putting up a fight, compelling just because of the passion he brought to each and every stanza. I don’t expect Lookmahanak to stick around much longer than the last Thai fighter who faced Arce did (Medgoen Singsurat was blasted in one round last December for those of you who are keeping score), but I do expect the fight to be entertaining while it lasts. And in the interest of full disclosure I should mention that I will be there in Auguascalientes, ringside in the Plaza Monumental, as one of commentators for the U.S. pay-per-view broadcast (available on DishNetwork, DirecTV, and In Demand). But don’t think I’m trying to sell you the Top Rank card. I’m not. I think the Mijares-Munoz unification bout is the best and most significant fight available on TV this Saturday night (and that includes the HBO B.A.D. show), however, that won’t prevent me from having a great time calling the action of Arce and Southern California-based fighters like Brian Viloria and Brando Rios along side Nick Charles and Genaro Hernandez in a packed outdoor arena. 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