By Jake Donovan

Once upon a time, boxing was a sport where one or two losses didn’t even make for a bad year, never mind write off a fighter’s entire career.

Slowly but surely, the sport is making efforts to drift back to the way things were. This year is the extremely scaled down version of how the game was played back in the day, but we’re once again enjoying better fights on the normal boxing outlets.

We’re seeing fewer $50 pay-per-views clutter up our schedule.

Promoters aren’t taking network money and bolting for the nearest casino. Instead, they’re actually promoting.

Our top fighters? They’re fighting, regardless of the risk/reward factor. They’re still winning for the most part, but every once in a while they lose.

But they still come back.

Alfredo “El Perro” Angulo still has a ways to go before he can be confused with the best junior middleweights in the world. He appeared to be on his way when 2008 became 2009.

A string of knockouts against respectable – and progressing – competition caught the eye of many in the boxing industry, most notably cable giant HBO, who jumped on his bandwagon last year.

In an era where there is tremendous pressure to look good in every fight, Angulo was believed to be the prototype for the next generation of “It” fighters.

He’s never in a dull fight. He has an amateur pedigree, complete with a spot on the 2004 Mexican Olympic boxing squad. His nights almost always end in knockout fashion. He fights often, and he was undefeated.

At least that’s how he was portrayed when regularly appearing on Shobox for a time, and then HBO for his past four fights. But it was his last fight that changed the perception of who he is and who he could become.

A points loss to Kermit Cintron this past May suddenly changed Angulo’s status from undefeated rising contender to a fighter with a lot of glaring flaws.

The style never changed, but just as winning cures many things, a single loss tends to magnify any problem, no matter how big or small.

Angulo’s fan-friendly ways in the ring were forgiven so long as he kept winning, which he had done and often in very violent fashion since turning pro in 2005.

For the moment, they stopped forgiving him, due to his falling just short in a fight where he was a 3-1 favorite to upend a perceived mentally fragile veteran ex-champion.

It was an upset, and a step back in his young career. A win would’ve put him in line for an alphabet title shot against Sergio Martinez, with whom he had shared undercard space on two consecutive HBO Boxing After Dark telecasts.

One of the cards included Martinez’ own controversial draw against Cintron, a night where Angulo could’ve made a major statement, only for original opponent Ricardo Mayorga to tuck his tail and bolt from the card. Angulo was instead forced to settle for late sub Cosme Rivera, racking up his 11th straight stoppage, though to considerably less fan fare than he would’ve enjoyed with a win over the brash Nicaraguan. It still stood out far more than Martinez’ bizarre match with Cintron, in which he scored a knockout and seemingly won far more rounds than his opponent, only to wind up with a draw.

Three months later, it would prove to be better than what Angulo was able to accomplish.

Still, that Cintron was able to get the better of his lesser experienced foe shouldn’t provide a death sentence. An alibi was floated soon after the result that Angulo was considerably weakened due to coming down with the flue prior to the fight.

Some took it as an excuse; others accepted it as reason for Angulo looking like anything other than himself on that May evening in South Florida. Whatever the case, the Mexican still managed to finish the fight a lot better than he began, to where several in the media quipped that in a 15-round fight, Angulo comes back to win by knockout.

Of course, there no longer exists prize fights that extend beyond 12 rounds. What still lingers in todays game are fighters dubbed “throwbacks,” those who play for the love of the game, rather than jockeying for a network contract, even if it means remaining on the shelf for months at a time.

This is where Angulo will always have a place in the sport. He could’ve easily hid behind his HBO backing, with a November date already in the bank. That would give him more than five months to rest, reflect on what went wrong in the Cintron fight, and come back to a handsome payday against a TV-friendly opponent.

Instead, the 26-year old is anxious to remove the bad taste out of his mouth. So rather than waiting until November 7 to find out how he handles the first loss of his professional career, the journey is accelerated three months in advance.

A trip to the ESPN2 Friday Night Fights circuit could be viewed by some as a backwards step. Those with a greater understanding of the game within the game recognize the move as the perfect stay-busy opportunity. Come this Friday in Primm, Nevada (ESPN2, 9PM ET), he can prove to possess no ill effects from the loss, rather than have to contend with all of that plus the ring rust that would come with sitting around and waiting until November.

Unlike other fighters who only veer from the premium networks under the safest of circumstances, a gimme fight is hardly what awaits Angulo. A win is expected, but not necessarily guaranteed. What isn’t expected and will come as a pleasant surprise would be if he were to immediately resume his knockout ways.

Awaiting him in the ESPN2 Friday Night Fights main event is Gabriel Rosado. Based out of Philly, Rosado is far more spoiler than contender, which is to say that wins over notable opposition is more shocking than expected.

Still, he’s carving out a heck of a 2009 campaign for himself. Included in his less-than-sparkling record of 12-3 (7KO) is a minor upset over Kassim Ouma, and a hard-fought decision loss to Fernando Guerrero earlier this year on ESPN2. Rosado became the first to score a knockdown on the beastly middleweight prospect – and in his opponent’s hometown, no less – but struggled to keep up the rest of the way in falling just short by night’s end.

The brave showing against Guerrero came on the heels (somewhat) of his most impressive performance to date, an upset points win over previously unbeaten Jamie Moore last summer, which also aired on ESPN2 as part of their now-defunct Wednesday Night Fights series.

Rosado’s appearances on ESPN2 are just two fights among the 15 in which he’s never been dropped or stopped. That is the challenge that awaits Angulo when he enters the ring this Friday, just 68 days after suffering the lone defeat of his young professional career.

Given what lies ahead – a cushy HBO co-feature slot beneath Chad Dawson’s rematch with Glen Johnson later this year, those less inclined to take risks will advise Angulo to simply win this weekend and look good the next time.

The only problem with that is this: if that’s who Alfredo Angulo was, we wouldn’t be seeing him in the ring this weekend.

We ARE seeing him perform this weekend. Yes, it’s a version that has one more loss than the last time he entered the ring for a prize fight. No, it’s no longer the guy that’s one fight away from snatching the first of what was once expected to be many world titles to come.

But the Cintron debacle notwithstanding, it’s still the fire-breathing junior middleweight who always entertains, and never stops looking for a way to win. It’s still the same guy everyone fell in love with as he advances from newcomer to prospect to contender almost overnight.

Look past the win-loss totals and it will all come back to you soon enough.

If not, then fear not – Alfredo Angulo is still the type of fighter who doesn’t have a problem reminding you of what he’s truly about.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .