Viva Mexico! Canelo Wooly Bully Alvarez vs. Angulo, El Terrible Morales vs. The Rat
By Robert Brizel, Head RCM Boxing Correspondent
Viva Mexico! Jose Sulaiman may be gone, but Mexico is certainly not to be forgotten is two unforgettable bouts coming up in 2014. Some may say, why are Mexicans fighting Mexicans? This reporter says: why not? Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s bouts aside, Mexico versus Mexico offers some of the best professional matchups boxing has seen in recent memory. The late World Boxing Council President Jose Sulaiman must be looking down and smiling at these upcoming bouts, folks, they sure promise an exciting show!
Wooly Bully, the 1965 hit song which created a worldwide sensation, sold three million copies and reached number two of the American top 100 chart, was a song written by Sam The Sham (Domingo Samudio) for the debut album Sam The Sham &The Pharaohs, a song of a Tex-Mex nature intended as a tribute to the Holly Gully dance. The lyrics describe a conversation between ‘Hattie’ and Matty’ concerning the American Bison and the desirability of developing dancing skills. Goofing around while counting off the Tex-Mex rhythm in English and Spanish during record, the song blew everybody away. In the same fashion, Alvarez versus Angulo might be the fight of the year. Who knows? We’ll see.
Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs Perform Wooly Bully on TV Live! YouTube from 1965
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNW9e_q0PPc various clips from the famous song
Canelo Alvarez will try to cut off the ring and play the bully against fellow Mexican Alfredo Angulo in the 12 round main event at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 8, 2014. No belt is at stake in this world class bout. Mexican Carlos ‘King’ Molina of Chicago will remain in the Canelo and Floyd hunt with an International Boxing Federation World Light Middleweight title defense against 17-0 JermallCharlo on the undercard. Leo ‘Teremoto’ Santa Cruz of Mexico will defend his WBC Super Bantamweight title against Cristian Mijares in another bout on the card. Omar Panterita Figueroa of Texas will defend his interim WBC World Lightweight title against Mexico’s Ricardo Alvarez in a cross border squabble. Former WBA World Super Featherweight champion and former Edwin Valero stablemate Jorge Linares of Mexico will fight a ten round lightweight bout against Nihito Arakawa of Japan, who is coming off a 12 round WBA title loss to Figueroa.
Alfredo ‘Perro’ Angulo of Mexicali, Mexico, 22-3 with 18 knockouts, coming off a tenth round stoppage loss to Erislandy Lara in June 2013 for the interim World Boxing Association World Light Middleweight title, will try his hand against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, 42-1 with 30 knockouts, Juanacatlan, Jalisco, Mexico. Canelo has 11 WBC Silver or World Title bouts under his belt, as well as 11 WBA, WBC, WBO and NABF regional title belts fought. Canelo’s onlyloss was his world title decision loss to Floyd last November. Angulo has six WBC and WBO regional title bouts experience.
Having lost his title bout with Lara, an eliminator to Kermit Cintron, and getting stopped in his native Mexico by Kermit Cintron, Angulo is clearly the underdog against Canelo. Lara did a paint job on Angulo. Still, Canelo lost his last bout, and may be somewhat cautious with Angulo. For this reason,Canelois favored by 12 round decision over Angulo in a bout similar to his 12 round win over Austin Trout.
The bout might become more interesting if Angulo decides to go for broke and get the younger Canelo out of there in a power punching slugfest. Depending on the game plan, if Angulo decides to put it ‘all on the table’ somebody will get knocked out or stopped in the middle or later rounds, and it won’t be a pretty ending whichever way it goes. Angulo has nothing to lose by taking this opportunity fight, and Lara is an opponent on par with Canelo’s bout with Floyd. The best is fighting the best, the way the boxing public wants it.
Like the James Bond movie ‘Never Say Never’, Mexican warrior veteran Erik ‘El Terrible’ Morales is stepping back into the ring one more time after his two losses to Danny Garcia in 2012. Though he beat 23-0-1 Pablo Cesar Cano in 2011, Morales lost a majority decision in 2011 to Marcos Rene Maidana for theinterim WBA World Light Welterweight title. Maidana holds the WBA World Welterweight title currently after decisioning Adrien Broner.
Morales, now 52-9, 36 knockouts, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, will move up from light welterweight to welterweight to battle Jorge ‘El Raton’ Paez Jr., 37-4-1, 22 knockouts, Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. The Rat has won ten consecutive bouts, and has gone ten or 12 rounds nine times in his career. Paez, the son of former IBF and WBO World Featherweight champion Jorge Paez, is no Floyd Mayweather Jr. clone. As far as boxing children of famous Mexican boxers, Paez is no Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to strike a comparison. Paez Jr. has, however, fared better in terms of name recognition than Pipino Cuevas Jr. (17-11, 15 knockouts), Marcos Geraldo Jr. (10-0 but gave up), Carlos Zarate Jr. (20-1, 15 knockouts, still boxing), and Jose Luis Ramirez Jr. (6-0-1, three knockouts, still boxing). Morales, despite being past hisprime, should win an impressive ten round decision over Paez Jr. in a competitive bout.
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