COULD KIRKLAND'S SMASHING VICTORY OVER ANGULO BE THE PRELUDE?
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 06 Nov 2011
Two great warriors faced each other at Cancun, Mexico just hours ago and they produced what could be the ?Round of the Year.?
James (The Mandingo Warrior) Kirkland who parades a record of 30-1-0, 27 KO scored a well deserved 6th round TKO over Alfredo ?El Perro? Angulo of Mexico (20-2-1, 17 KO).
The two junior middleweights met at the middle of the ring after a malfunction in the sound system frustrated Michael Buffer, the ring announcer.
Immediately, they started throwing huge bombs at each other. About 30 seconds in the round, Angulo threw a right counter that traveled maybe just about a foot and landed right smack in the point of the chin of Kirkland.
The force of the hit was so immense, it dropped Kirkland on the seat of his pants clearly dazed. Other opponents of Angulo who were recipient of the same punch never got up. It was perhaps only superior conditioning that allowed Kirkland to shake the cob-webs and beat the count.
Soon as the referee signaled the fight to resume, Angulo made a mental mistake.
Angulo chased and battered Kirkland all over the ring throwing many punches from all angles. Some hit solidly, many others missed or where blocked by Kirkland.
Kirkland appeared to be done but he threw just enough punches to be competitive.
Suddenly, Kirkland begun to connect and it was Angulo?s turn to back track and cover up.
Kirkland then reversed the whole scenario. He attacked Argulo who at that point appeared to have run out of gas.
A series of well placed combinations dropped Angulo to the seat of his pants, catching the ropes on his way down in an effort to stay up.
Angulo was done at that point.
Angulo who has never been dropped to the canvas as an amateur or a pro finally found out how it feels to be at the other end of the stick. The knockdown seemed to have affected his psyche and he was never the same from that point.
In the next four rounds, there were fairly good exchanges between the two but Kirkland begun adding up the points in his favor.
Finally, in round six after Kirkland backed up Angulo to the ropes, he threw many combinations that landed squarely. Some were so strong that it snapped Angulo?s backward.
Just as Angulo was about to go down, the referee mercifully intervened and stopped the fight.
It was a good and a well timed stoppage as Angulo at that point was no longer capable of giving a fight let alone a good defense.
The dog was done!
Angulo?s loss to this writer was a team loss.
His corner failed to advise him to cool off and try to regain his bearing instead of trying to go for a KO with one punch. Of course Angulo was capable of doing that, but Kirkland was at times elusive and his corner very smart. She, (yes, it?s a she and her name is Ann Wolfe) advised him to use his head and be smart. With that Angulo had little success in landing solid shots.
Angulo also got greedy. After he dropped Kirkland, he thought he could do what Nobuhiro Ishida did to Kirkland - stop him within 1 round.
But he punched himself out before he got the job done.
Kirkland?s victory could well be the prelude of what will happen to Nacho Beristein?s fighters two weekends in a row. Juan Manuel Marquez may catch Manny Pacquiao early but he better do it right if he wants to even come close to a victory.
If he does not, Manny Pacquiao will come back and hunt him down worse that what Kirkland did to Angulo.
But then again, Pacquiao may not even give him an iota of a chance.
Perhaps he will put Marquez out for good before the ?Bloated One? gets to get his bearing and put up a fight.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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