Lara aims to give "El Perro" a boxing lesson
Light middleweight contender Erislandy Lara (17-1-2) of Cuba is fully prepared to give fans a great fight when he faces Mexican puncher Alfredo "El Perro" Angulo (22-2) in their scheduled 12-round bout for the vacant WBA Interim light middleweight title this Saturday from The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.
Lara is an elusive southpaw with great boxing skills and ring intelligence. He is up against a fighter in Angulo who applies a tremendous amount of pressure and can bang, with 18 KOs. Lara vows to take his boxing skills to the next level against Angulo and show the boxing world why he is the best fighter in the division.
"Angulo is a very tough fighter who can overwhelm his opponents with the pressure style he brings to the ring," said Lara. "I know I'm up against a very tough challenge, but he's never been in the ring with a world class fighter like me. There is nothing he does that I haven't already seen. My goal is to give him a boxing lesson and win my first world championship on June 8."
In his last five fights, Lara has had a more than average run only losing one, a questionable majority decision defeat to Paul Williams. Lara has beaten the tough Freddy Hernandez and knocked out Ronald Hearns in one. A draw against title challenger Carlos Molina and contender Vanes Martirosyan round out his five outings.
Angulo, now trained by Virgil Hunter, wants to show off his improved abilities and is looking to power past boxer Lara.
"Many say that Cuba's boxing is very good and (the fighters) are very technical, but that's amateur boxing." said Angulo. " They have brought that style to the professional ranks and it has worked for them, but I think that Lara will not (be able to) do much in a dog fight. Now my defence is much better, I 've practiced a lot and you will notice the difference. I could tell you something about my changes, but I prefer that people watch for them on the eighth of June."
Angulo suffered a bruising 6th round stoppage defeat to James Kirkland in November 2011 in a candidate for fight of the year, where both fighters were down and hurt in the first round. Following immigration visa issues Angulo returned from his imposed hiatus on November 2012, making quick work of overmatched Raul Casarez, stopping him in 56 seconds of the first round. Many believed that despite the time away Angulo had not lost any of his abilities. In his next fight, people began to have their doubts.
Angulo still won a 10 round unanimous decision over Jorge Silva last December, though Silva put on a gutsy performance and put up a good accounting of himself with a tremendous show of courage. Angulo walked him down, outboxed him and unloaded and tried to finish Silva in the 10th but Silva fought back and wouldn't go over, leaving Angulo a winner but somewhat frustrated. The popular Angulo is back in the thick of things and now will face the Cuban stylist in a much anticipated match up which is the co-feature bout to Marcos Maidana vs Josesito Lopez, live on BoxNation.