ANGULO-KIRKLAND ?WAR? ON AKTV
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 03 Nov 2011
In a junior middleweight war in Cancun, Mexico on Sunday, Manila Time, heavy hitters Alfredo Angulo and James Kirkland battle in a title eliminator for a possible shot at WBC super welterweight champion Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez.
The fight will be telecast by AKTV IBC Channel 13 on ?Big Time Bakbakan? at 9:00 p.m. on Sunday.
As boxing writer Gary Purfield points out ?nobody is coming into the ring to get cute? because when Angulo and Kirkland step into the ring they are ready to go to war with no real attention to the finer aspects of boxing.
Both fighters have reputations to rebuild with Angulo forced into a long layoff because he couldn?t get a visa to enter the US to fight and Kirkland spent time in prison following a probation violation and stunning loss to a comparative nobody in Nobuhiro Ishida of Japan.
Without a doubt Angulo and Kirkland are two of the most exciting, all-action fighters with Angulo (20-1, 17 KO?s) regarded as a destructive force while Kirkland (29-1, 26 KO?s) is considered equally powerful and unpredictable.
Most boxing writers say that Angulo reminds them of Antonio Margarito, with his grit and demeanor in the ring. Geno McGahee believes Angulo ? hits harder than Margarito and there is plenty of room for growth. He is relentless and even in his loss to Kermit Cintron in 2009, he showed a lot of star potential. Since that defeat, he has put together five straight knockout wins, including a first round stoppage of former champion, Joachim Alcine.?
Kirkland was described by McGahee as ? another tenacious power-puncher that plowed through most of his opposition with relative ease.?
After 2 years in prison for a probation violation Kirkland returned to the ring to score two straight early knockouts, but then the unexpected happen. Nobuhiro Ishida, a fighter with only 7 knockouts in 22 wins dropped Kirkland who ran into a solid punch by the Japanese and went down three times before the fight was stopped in the very first round.
Kirkland came back and scored back-to-back KO victories to earn what must be considered a do-or-die showdown against Angulo. He scored a 1st round knockout of Dennis Sharpe on June 24 this year and followed up with a 2nd round TKO of Alexis Hloros on July 23.
After a series of disappointing fights such as the Floyd Mayweather Jr-Victor Sanchez farce and undefeated two-division champion Omar Andres Narvaez refusing to engage WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Nonito ?The Filipino Flash? Donaire fight fans can expect fireworks with Angulo keen on impressing his Mexican fans and Kirkland seeking redemption.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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