By Keith Idec
Alfredo Angulo would love to get another shot at James Kirkland.
“El Perro” hasn’t fought in the trying year since Kirkland came back to stop him in the sixth round of their instant classic last Nov. 5 in Cancun, but he is eager to avenge that devastating defeat.
“Yeah, no problem,” Angulo said through a translator regarding a Kirkland rematch. “No problem whatsoever. If the fight presents itself in the future, no problem. I’ll do it. I think that I owe it to my fans to come and do that fight and get a rematch. I’ll do the rematch. I don’t have any problem fighting anybody. I don’t care who it is.”
The 30-year-old Angulo (20-2, 17 KOs) will first attempt to shed some ring rust Saturday night in a scheduled 12-round junior-middleweight match against Raul Casarez (19-2, 9 KOs). The Angulo-Casarez clash will open a “Showtime Championship Boxing” tripleheader scheduled to start at 10 p.m. EST from Staples Center in Los Angeles.
“[Angulo] has been away for a while and he is now back, back with a vengeance,” said Oscar De La Hoya, whose Golden Boy Promotions represents Angulo. “He wanted a tough opponent. He wanted a guy who was coming at him, who is going to make a fan-friendly fight.”
Casarez, of Edinburg, Texas, has won five straight fights since settling for a no-contest with Mexico’s Adan Murillo (4-4, 1 KO, 1 NC) in August 2009, when Murillo couldn’t continue due to a cut caused by an accidental clash of heads. The 25-year-old Casarez has never faced an opponent nearly as formidable as Angulo, though, even this inactive version of the rugged Mexican contender.
“I don’t know too much about my opponent,” said Angulo, who spent seven months in a El Centro, Calif., detention center earlier this year before rectifying a visa issue. “I do know that he’s good, that he’s been on an 11-fight winning streak. It doesn’t matter what he does, if he’s going to run or if he’s going to stand and fight. It really doesn’t matter to me. I’m focused and I can fight any way. I’m concentrating on making a good fight.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
