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Always very good at predicting fights
Some fights have “guaranteed action” written all over them, and one such contest tops the bill on HBO’s Boxing After Dark on Saturday night when Mexico’s Alfredo Angulo meets James Kirkland, from Austin, TX, in a clash of junior middleweight crowd-pleasers.
The only thing I am sure about is that the fight is very unlikely to go the scheduled 12 rounds. The other man in the ring never has to look very far to find Angulo or Kirkland: These are in-your-face fighters.
Angulo is the favourite, and rightly so. He is boxing at home in Mexico and in his only loss he was, I understand, suffering from the sickening effects of a virus when Kermit Cintron outboxed him — in fact, one source told me that there was a question of whether Angulo should box that night but the fighter was adamant he didn’t want to pull out.
Kirkland, meanwhile, served a prison term for probation violation when a gun was found in his vehicle, and he hasn’t looked the same since returning from a two-year absence from the ring. The “Mandingo Warrior” shockingly suffered three knockdowns in his first-round loss against Nobuhiro Ishida, who is not regarded as a seriously hard hitter, and, in his fight before this, Kirkland wobbled alarmingly before overwhelming a Colombian trial horse named Jhon Berrio.
The question being asked in boxing circles is: Has Kirkland’s chin “gone”? It isn’t unusual for an aggressive fighter such as Kirkland to get rocked and even staggered in a fight — it happened to Nigel Benn, for instance, but the British banger showed exceptional resilience in his brutal, tragic victory over Gerald McClellan. As for the one-round loss Kirkland suffered against Ishida, this could have been a combination of over-confidence and lack of the extremely high level of conditioning that a fighter such as Kirkland needs.
Good fighters have been stopped in the first round throughout ring history, so much so that a first-round defeat can be misleading.
I think back to the U.K. in the 1960s when Pat Dwyer, a former national amateur champion who knew how to fight, got caught, hurt and overwhelmed in 80 seconds by a boxer of little repute from Bermuda named Freddie Thomas, but in his next fight Dwyer hammered the strong and heavy hitting middleweight prospect Mark Rowe in the fourth round. Johnny Prescott, a colourful British heavyweight prospect, lost in the first round to a Nigerian trial horse named Alex Barrow *— in a rematch the following month, Prescott defeated Barrow on points. More recently, Amir Khan and Jorge Linares went out of fights in the opening round. So, one-round losses often can almost be classed as accidents.
If Kirkland’s punch-resistance has been compromised, of course, he will not last very many rounds against Angulo, who hits heavily with either the left hook or the right hand. However, if Kirkland can take Angulo’s big hits and push himself forward, fists pumping from out of his southpaw stance, this could develop into a very exciting, two-sided fight.
Reassuringly for his backers, Kirkland has reunited with trainer Ann Wolf, the former female boxing champ known for her commando-style of conditioning. It does seem that Kirkland needs Wolf’s rigid discipline and unconventional training regimen — a spell working in Las Vegas under veteran trainer Kenny Adams just didn’t work out for Kirkland, who, it is now agreed by all parties, needed to be put through the mill in the uncompromising Ann Wolf manner.
Take away the Ishida shocker and Saturday’s fight would be much closer to even money. Angulo has an iron chin and he puts his punches together with punishing effectiveness, but, while he keeps his hands up quite well to block punches, Angulo has never backed down from a give-and-take type of fight — if Kirkland breaks through with an early onslaught it is likely that Angulo will blast right back, even though his distinguished trainer Nacho Beristain might prefer a more technical approach.
I think that what we have here is a fight that will be a survival of the fittest. Angulo must be considered to have the better chin, but Kirkland might get there first with his rapidly thrown punches.
Usually I will offer a betting tip to my subscribers but I think I will just sit back and enjoy this fight.
I am expecting the fight to go some rounds, at least six rounds and maybe even into the later rounds, because these are boxers who will fight above and beyond the call of duty.
Logically, the fighter with the better chin — in this case Angulo — wins these shootout type of boxing matches, and he is what I would call a safe selection for a pick-the-winner prediction league. Certainly Angulo must be considered the betting favourite.
However, there’s something about Kirkland, now that he is back with Ann Wolf, that has me thinking that this won’t be the quick win for Angulo that many are expecting. Everything hinges, though, on how Kirkland reacts when Angulo hits him on the chin, and we won’t know that till Saturday night.
Some fights have “guaranteed action” written all over them, and one such contest tops the bill on HBO’s Boxing After Dark on Saturday night when Mexico’s Alfredo Angulo meets James Kirkland, from Austin, TX, in a clash of junior middleweight crowd-pleasers.
The only thing I am sure about is that the fight is very unlikely to go the scheduled 12 rounds. The other man in the ring never has to look very far to find Angulo or Kirkland: These are in-your-face fighters.
Angulo is the favourite, and rightly so. He is boxing at home in Mexico and in his only loss he was, I understand, suffering from the sickening effects of a virus when Kermit Cintron outboxed him — in fact, one source told me that there was a question of whether Angulo should box that night but the fighter was adamant he didn’t want to pull out.
Kirkland, meanwhile, served a prison term for probation violation when a gun was found in his vehicle, and he hasn’t looked the same since returning from a two-year absence from the ring. The “Mandingo Warrior” shockingly suffered three knockdowns in his first-round loss against Nobuhiro Ishida, who is not regarded as a seriously hard hitter, and, in his fight before this, Kirkland wobbled alarmingly before overwhelming a Colombian trial horse named Jhon Berrio.
The question being asked in boxing circles is: Has Kirkland’s chin “gone”? It isn’t unusual for an aggressive fighter such as Kirkland to get rocked and even staggered in a fight — it happened to Nigel Benn, for instance, but the British banger showed exceptional resilience in his brutal, tragic victory over Gerald McClellan. As for the one-round loss Kirkland suffered against Ishida, this could have been a combination of over-confidence and lack of the extremely high level of conditioning that a fighter such as Kirkland needs.
Good fighters have been stopped in the first round throughout ring history, so much so that a first-round defeat can be misleading.
I think back to the U.K. in the 1960s when Pat Dwyer, a former national amateur champion who knew how to fight, got caught, hurt and overwhelmed in 80 seconds by a boxer of little repute from Bermuda named Freddie Thomas, but in his next fight Dwyer hammered the strong and heavy hitting middleweight prospect Mark Rowe in the fourth round. Johnny Prescott, a colourful British heavyweight prospect, lost in the first round to a Nigerian trial horse named Alex Barrow *— in a rematch the following month, Prescott defeated Barrow on points. More recently, Amir Khan and Jorge Linares went out of fights in the opening round. So, one-round losses often can almost be classed as accidents.
If Kirkland’s punch-resistance has been compromised, of course, he will not last very many rounds against Angulo, who hits heavily with either the left hook or the right hand. However, if Kirkland can take Angulo’s big hits and push himself forward, fists pumping from out of his southpaw stance, this could develop into a very exciting, two-sided fight.
Reassuringly for his backers, Kirkland has reunited with trainer Ann Wolf, the former female boxing champ known for her commando-style of conditioning. It does seem that Kirkland needs Wolf’s rigid discipline and unconventional training regimen — a spell working in Las Vegas under veteran trainer Kenny Adams just didn’t work out for Kirkland, who, it is now agreed by all parties, needed to be put through the mill in the uncompromising Ann Wolf manner.
Take away the Ishida shocker and Saturday’s fight would be much closer to even money. Angulo has an iron chin and he puts his punches together with punishing effectiveness, but, while he keeps his hands up quite well to block punches, Angulo has never backed down from a give-and-take type of fight — if Kirkland breaks through with an early onslaught it is likely that Angulo will blast right back, even though his distinguished trainer Nacho Beristain might prefer a more technical approach.
I think that what we have here is a fight that will be a survival of the fittest. Angulo must be considered to have the better chin, but Kirkland might get there first with his rapidly thrown punches.
Usually I will offer a betting tip to my subscribers but I think I will just sit back and enjoy this fight.
I am expecting the fight to go some rounds, at least six rounds and maybe even into the later rounds, because these are boxers who will fight above and beyond the call of duty.
Logically, the fighter with the better chin — in this case Angulo — wins these shootout type of boxing matches, and he is what I would call a safe selection for a pick-the-winner prediction league. Certainly Angulo must be considered the betting favourite.
However, there’s something about Kirkland, now that he is back with Ann Wolf, that has me thinking that this won’t be the quick win for Angulo that many are expecting. Everything hinges, though, on how Kirkland reacts when Angulo hits him on the chin, and we won’t know that till Saturday night.
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