As Canelo Alvarez searches for an opponent in March after being turned down by Miguel Cotto, slugger Alfredo Angulo has emerged as a leading candidate to take on the Mexican superstar.
Cuban counterpuncher Erislandy Lara has been vocal about his desire to take on Alvarez, but it appears Showtime executives prefer the hard-charging Angulo stylistically, despite Lara having recently defeated Angulo.
In Lara's last fight, against Austin Trout on December 7th, he dominated the action and knocked the difficult southpaw to the canvas. "I did what Canelo couldn't do," Lara told Showtime's Jim Gray through an interpreter. "I dominated Trout and I dropped him. Now we have to make a fight that everyone wants to see which is me against Canelo."
While Canelo also knocked Trout down, Lara is correct in his assessment about "dominating" him. Canelo's victory over Trout was hotly contested even with the knockdown. Then, Canelo was nearly shut out by Floyd Mayweather Jr., another defensive tactician. That is leading Lara to think Alvarez and his team are ducking him.
"I don't think that it's going to be his decision. I think that it's his management team. From the beginning, they've treated him like a baby," Lara said of Canelo facing him. "Golden Boy has done a great job promoting him, and that's why he's gotten as far as he's gotten, but I feel that he's a baby, and that's all that he is."
Whether Canelo's ducking him or not, the frontrunner now is Angulo, and his trainer Virgil Hunter doesn't think losing to Lara makes him unworthy of the chance to take on Alvarez. "Let's face it, Angulo gave the best guy at 154 [Lara] the worst whipping of his life, the toughest fight of his life," Hunter said.
"He's very qualified to face Canelo. It remains to be seen how Canelo will bounce back from Floyd. That's open for speculation. Any fight that Alfredo is in, he's in the fight because of his punching power. It remains to be seen about Canelo and how he handles that loss."
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