Junior Middleweight

Making weight shouldn't be a major concern for Saul "Canelo" Alvarez or his opponent Alfred "El Perro" Angulo. Neither man has had major difficulties sculpting their frames down to 154 pounds in the past.

If anything, the drama of Friday afternoon's weigh-in at the MGM Grand Garden Arena will come during the staredown. Angulo has an intimidating presence and the punching power to back up the look.

Though he isn't as skilled as Canelo, his relentlessness and pressure should make this a good fight. Here's the information needed to watch the weigh-in via live stream.

When: Friday at 5 p.m. ET

Where: MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas

Live Stream: Showtime Sports on YouTube

Who's Picking Canelo?

Almost everyone. In my preview, I picked Canelo to win by late TKO, though this fight will not be easy for him. Angulo has a little more than a puncher's chance to win. Canelo will have to be careful throughout.

Angulo never stops coming, and he might be the hardest puncher Canelo has ever faced. Despite Angulo's talents, Canelo is still listed as a -700 favorite to win per Bovada.

Who's Picking Angulo?

Not very many people think Angulo can pull the upset. In the poll from the aforementioned preview, only 34 percent picked Angulo to win during the early stages of the poll.

Angulo's most recent opponent, Erislandy Lara is a believer. Lara defeated Angulo by 10th-round TKO when a punch caused swelling to El Perro's eye. The referee was forced to halt the fight.

At the time of the stoppage, Angulo was up on one card and trailing by just a point on the other two judges' cards. He had dropped Lara twice in the fight. Because of Angulo's performance against him, Lara predicts his former foe will knock off Canelo on Saturday.

Speaking to Miguel Rivera of Boxing Scene, Lara said:

"If Angulo's eye holds up from the pounding of his last fight, I think he will knock Canelo out."

Angulo told ESNews Reporting in the video below, he believes Lara is more talented than Canelo.

We'll see if he and Lara are correct on Saturday night when the two meet in the pay-per-view main event.

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@BMaziqueFPBR

Alfredo "El Perro" Angulo may not be getting the respect he deserves from Las Vegas oddsmakers. Heading into his bout with Saul "Canelo" Alvarez on Saturday night from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Canelo is listed as a minus-700 favorite, per Bovada.

While he should be the favorite, as I picked him to win via TKO in my preview, the long odds suggest the 23-year-old Mexican star will mow down Angulo.

The truth is that Angulo has more than a puncher's chance to pull the upset.

In his last fight, he lost to the slick Erislandy Lara after the Cuban landed a well-placed and timed shot that badly injured Angulo's eye socket. When it happened, Angulo turned away, and the referee was forced to call off the bout.

At the time of the stoppage, Angulo was up on one judge's card and trailing by one point on the other two cards. The momentum was on his side after he dropped Lara in the ninth round. It was the second time he'd floored his opponent in the bout.

Although he lost the fight, Angulo's stock ascended because of his performance. He is a power puncher as his 18 KOs in 25 fights would indicate, but with Virgil Hunter as his trainer, he looks more refined and has better stamina.

Even in defeat, Angulo showed the strides under Hunter, the same man who trains Andre Ward, Amir Khan and others.

At one point, Angulo was nothing more than a brawler hell bent on thrashing his opponent with little regard for anything else. While he'll always be a slugger, against Lara, Angulo showed that he had patience and stamina.

Lara was so impressed with Angulo that he predicts Angulo will knock out Canelo, per Miguel Rivera of Boxing Scene. Lara said, "If Angulo's eye holds up from the pounding of his last fight, I think he will knock Canelo out."

In this interview from EsNews Reporting, Angulo says that Lara is more talented than Canelo:

Quite honestly, that's not a preposterous statement. Lara's boxing skills and reflexes are exceptional.

This is precisely why Angulo's showing against him raised so many eyebrows.

That said, styles make fights. Just because Angulo narrowly lost to Lara, and the latter is presumably more talented than Canelo, doesn't mean that El Perro will win on Saturday night.

Still, there's enough doubt to push the odds a bit closer than they are. We'll see what train of thought is closest to reality on Saturday night.

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@BMaziqueFPBR

Jermall Charlo (17-0, 13 KO) is about to get the biggest test and opportunity of his young career. On Saturday night, as part of the undercard that features Saul "Canelo" Alvarez vs. Alfredo Angulo at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Charlo will face IBF light middleweight champion "King" Carlos Molina (22-5-2, 6 KO).

The 23-year-old Charlo is set to take a major step up in competition, much like his twin brother Jermell did in his last bout against another member of nickname royalty, "King" Gabriel Rosado.

Jermall hopes to follow the pattern created by Jermell. The latter out-boxed Rosado, and now Jermall will be looking to dethrone a king as well.

Molina won his title in his last bout. He captured a split-decision victory over Ishe Smith in September 2013. This bout with Charlo will be his first defense.

Here's how you can catch the action.

When: Saturday, March 8 at 9 p.m. ET

Where: MGM Grand in Las Vegas

TV: Showtime pay-per-view

The Book on Charlo

After a stellar amateur career, Charlo has been just as impressive as a professional. He's undefeated, but he hasn't faced anyone with the experience and skill that Molina possesses. 

That said, Charlo is an exceptional athlete. The Houston native is fired up and ready to take Molina's strap. He told Peter Lim of the Houston Chronicle, "I'm super ready. I feel like I'm on an elite level already. The record don't mean nothing. This is the best training camp I've ever had, hands down. I actually fought in December so I was already in good quality shape since."

There's no doubt Charlo's speed and power are superior to Molina's, but the champion is slick and knows how to gain advantages against physically superior opponents.

Still, Charlo remains confident in his approach. Per Thomas Gerbasi of Boxing Scene, Charlo said, "If I come in fresh, and come in spraying nothing but Lysol all over him, I can’t lose. His game plan is to make me look ugly, so the more confident and the more comfortable I feel in there, I won’t have a problem with it going to the scorecards."

Will Charlo get a boxing lesson, or will Molina become another conquered opponent?

The Book on Molina

Respect is hard to come by for Molina. Despite the fact that he's a world champion, his very modest KO total and ugly style don't exactly generate a lot of fan fare.

Those two detractions can cause opponents to overlook him. It appeared that's what happened in his last bout with Smith. Molina ultimately out-worked him and took his title.

Even with that respectable victory, Molina is still not well known and respected. Charlo told Kevin Idec of Boxing Scene that Molina was just a stepping stone.

At a press event for the bout, Fight Hype asked Molina how many fights he'd have to win to gain some respect. Molina replied, "I don't know how many fights it's going to take or how many wins, but all I can worry about is the fight in front of me, so all I have to do is keep winning every single fight…I know it's going to be tough; nothing's easy. I don't want it easy either."

(You can see the entire interview in the video below.)

On Saturday, he'll again be fighting to prove himself.

Prediction

This is going to be a very tough fight for Charlo. Molina is great at what he does. He makes the fight ugly. He frustrates opponents and he has good defense and a solid chin.

Charlo's biggest challenge is going to be remaining poised and fighting off frustration. The fight is going to go the distance.

There will likely be a good number of rounds that are difficult to score. However, Charlo will walk away with the title by a close majority decision.

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@BMaziqueFPBR

With the ink now dry on the contracts, we know that former junior middleweight champions Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and Alfredo "El Perro" Angulo have a signed, sealed and delivered date with destiny on March 8 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. 

The fight, which will be televised on Showtime pay-per-view, pits Alvarez—the cinnamon-haired rock star personality who took the boxing world by storm in 2013, against Angulo—a crude, unrefined brawler who never hesitates to go to war once the bell rings. 

On paper, the matchup seems to be the perfect comeback fight for Canelo, who suffered a huge setback in his last fight—a lopsided decision loss to pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather in 2013's fight, card and event of the boxing year.

But it would seem that, as a PPV attraction, this fight seems destined to flop.

Angulo, unlike Canelo's previous two opponents, is not a tricky boxer who will attempt to befuddle him with movement and defensive acumen. He's going to come forward, let his hands go and try to hit Alvarez harder than he can hit back. 

Defense, with all due respect, is not a word that you often see collide in the same sentence with the 31-year-old former interim WBO junior middleweight champion, and Angulo is not about to change just because he finds himself in a high-profile PPV fight.

He claimed the right to challenge Alvarez over two other frequently mentioned potential foes: IBF junior middleweight champion Carlos Molina and interim WBA champion Erislandy Lara.

And judging by some fans' reactions, there seems to be a bit of consternation about his selection. Some of them seem disappointed that Canelo didn't come up with something bigger and better for his return to the ring.

That emphasizes both the promise and peril of becoming a boxing rock star. Everything that Alvarez does is placed under a microscope, and it's rarely ever good enough to satisfy the critics.

Angulo is a worthy challenger, and Canelo has earned something of a break. Mind you, this fight is only a break when viewed in the context of his last two foes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8NEmm93Cw4

Both Mayweather and Austin Trout are known for their ability to hit and not get hit. Stylistically, both are much tougher matchups than the straight-up brawler he'll see in March, but that doesn't mean this fight is a gimme. 

"Perro" is a live dog—forgive the pun—who has tremendous punching power and guts. In his last fight, he fought tooth-and-nail with the virtually unhittable Lara, dropping the Cuban hard twice before being stopped due to an eye injury.

Now, whether or not fans choose to shell out money to watch the fight on PPV is an entirely different question.

At the box office, at least in the TV sense, this fight has flop written all over it. And there are a number of reasons why. 

Alvarez more than proved in the lead-up to his big showdown with Mayweather that he is capable of holding up his end of a promotion. At every stop along an ambitious 10-city press tour to hype the fight, he was swamped by thousands of adoring fans. 

His promoter Richard Schaefer dubbed the phenomenon "Canelomania" at a media luncheon held in September to hype the bout, and Showtime executive vice president Stephen Espinoza stressed Alvarez's ability to reach the masses:

In Mexico City, we were staying very close proximity to where the press conference was, to realize that not only were there going to be 20-30,000 people there, but the vast majority of those people were there four, five, six hours ahead of time.

The emphasis on Canelo being the next great Mexican star is obvious. The outpouring of love and support that he received on the trail was only exceeded by the atmosphere greeting him in and around the MGM Grand during fight week.

Throngs of Mexican fans converged on the Vegas strip, waving flags, beating drums and chanting his name with a fervor they hoped would will him to victory.

When Canelo stepped through the ropes in the MGM Grand Garden Arena, fans and media around ringside sensed that something special was about to happen.

And it did, only not to his benefit. 

He got dominated by a fighter who was older and smaller but just better in every facet of the game. Over 36 minutes of action, Mayweather was as brilliant as ever, and Alvarez, fairly or unfairly, looked every bit the 23-year-old overhyped pretender that detractors portrayed him to be. 

Now there's no shame in losing a fight to Mayweather.

In all, 44 men have seen their name across the marquee from the pound-for-pound king, and each and every one of them has gone down in defeat. Many have rebounded to achieve great success in the fight game, and Canelo is young and strong enough to bounce back in the ring.

But what damage has been done to his image?

Image is largely what sells fights on PPV—just ask Mayweather—and we don't yet know the extent of the damage done to the Mexican star when he got wiped out in the biggest boxing event in years. 

All you had to do was walk through the glut of people trying to make their way out of the MGM Grand after the fight—many with tears in their eyes and disappointment on their faces—to see that some significant damage had been done.

None of that is meant to say, or even imply, that Canelo's fanbase will abandon him en masse. But it calls into question whether or not this particular group of people, who went all-in with him against Mayweather, will be willing to buy in for what—in the context of "The One"—must feel like a letdown. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejzz5D_qwqc

Against Mayweather, the appeal was obvious. 

The bout was a chance to unify the junior middleweight division against the biggest name in the sport whom all other current boxers are measured by. When Mayweather retires, he will receive a plaque at the International Boxing Hall of Fame in short order.

He's quite possibly not just the greatest fighter of his era but possibly one of the best of any era. And there was a very real chance—at least if the hype were to be believed—that Canelo would be the guy to knock him off. 

That was high drama, and it helped contribute to the approximately 2.2 million buys on PPV—not enough to break the all-time record but more than enough to surpass the gross revenue record.

Where is the appeal in Angulo as a PPV opponent? On regular Showtime, no problem. But when you ask people to drop their hard-earned money for an event, you have to give them, well, an event.

And while this is a potentially exciting fight, it's simply not an event, and Angulo won't be viewed by the mainstream public as a threatening enough foe for them to fork over their cash.

Even if the undercard ends up getting stacked—per FightNews.com, there have been rumors of Leo Santa Cruz and Omar Figueroa showing up—are any of those fighters guaranteed to add a significant number of fans who wouldn't have already decided to order the fight?

Will Santa Cruz's presence on the card convince people to buy the fight who wouldn't have in the first place? How many people is Figueroa—who is about as exciting a young fighter as you'll see—going to draw in at this stage of his career?

There's no compelling backup plan on this card.

Even amongst the people who felt that Canelo was jumping out of his depth against Mayweather—and correspondingly that the fight would fail to live up to its hype—there was still a sense of excitement for Danny Garcia's defense against Lucas Matthysse. 

Where is that compelling secondary storyline on this card? There isn't one.

It would seem, at least on this one, that Showtime has overreached. 

Canelo vs. Angulo is the type of fight that makes you salivate as the headliner of a Showtime card. But as a PPV main event? 

Prepare for a box-office flop.

All quotes were obtained first-hand by the writer.

When highly-skilled, but relatively dull fighters clash, who will watch the bout? Sadly, the answer to that question is probably only boxing fanatics like myself. Erislandy Lara (18-1-1, 12 KO) and Austin "No Doubt" Trout (26-1, 14 KO) will fight for the vacant WBA light middleweight title on Saturday, Dec. 7. The fight is part of the Zab Judah vs. Paulie Malignaggi undercard. 

With all due respect to Judah and Malignaggi, there is no way that fight is better than Lara-Trout. I digress, but thus is the nature of the sport I love. Lara and Trout aren't flamboyant and they don't have reckless styles, but both are excellent and tactical boxers.

This one should be very good. Here's how you can watch.

When: Saturday, Dec. 7 at 8 p.m. ET

Where: Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY

TV: Showtime

The Slick and Underrated

The 30-year-old Cuban is a fast and precise counter-puncher who would give just about any fighter in the world a tough bout. Despite his extraordinary skill, few regard him as elite. He was robbed of a win against Paul Williams in 2011 and is generally underrated. Before this year, the win over Williams would have been Lara's biggest.

In his last fight against Alfredo Angulo, Lara thoroughly outboxed his opponent for most of the fight.

He was hurt by hard shots on two occasions, but he showed his toughness in weathering the storm. Lara ultimately stopped Angulo in the 10th round after the latter suffered a broken orbital bone.

Lara showed grit that many may have doubted he possessed. That fight has created some momentum, but he needs to beat Trout to gain the attention of those in the boxing community.

Climbing Back up the Ladder

After losing what should have been a closer decision to Canelo Alvarez in April, Trout returns to the ring for what will be a stiff challenge.

It would be great to see how Trout would perform in a rematch with Alvarez, but even beyond that, there are other potential fights for him at 154 pounds. Anthony Mundine is an interesting possibility. The Aussie just stopped Shane Mosley in November and could be in line for a bigger showcase.

Before any of that comes to pass, Trout must handle Lara on Saturday and that may not happen.

Prediction

Both fighters are southpaws, so it creates an interesting dynamic. Usually they are the fighter who represents a different look for their opponent. Seeing how the action plays out here. Williams is a southpaw and Lara did well against him—even though he didn't get the decision.

Trout has had success against southpaws like David Alonso Lopez and Rigoberto Alvarez, but those fighters aren't as skilled as Lara.

Neither Lara nor Trout have explosive power, but the Cuban is the better puncher. He's also the faster of the two. Trout is physically stronger in the clinch and he also has a solid jab. If he can execute a jab-and-grab strategy, he could frustrate Lara and possibly grind out a decision.

I believe the more likely result is a unanimous decision victory for Lara based on cleaner, more effective counter-punching. Lara should be in line to face fighters like Canelo Alvarez, Miguel Cotto, Timothy Bradley (at 147 pounds) or even Floyd Mayweather Jr. If he proves me right and defeats Trout, we'll have to wait and see who he gets in his next bout.

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In a fight that never got fans out of their seat, Demetrius Andrade won the vacant WBO light middleweight championship by an odd split decision. Andrade was dropped in the first round from a left hook by Martirosyan after dominating the entire round.

Andrade wasn't hurt, but the force of the blow took him off his feet. From that point on, Martirosyan's high points were few and far between. Despite Andrade's clear domination, one judge, Javier Alvarez—who as far as we know isn't related to C.J. Ross—scored the fight 115-112 for Martirosyan.

Fortunately, the other two judges, Don Griffin (114-113) and Jesse Reyes (117-110) watched the fight with their eyes open and scored it for Andrade.

The new champion culminated a long journey from his days as an American Olympian. The 25-year-old used his jab and quickness to befuddle Martirosyan most of the night. He seemed to land at will with the right hand and he mixed in the occasional power shot for good measure.

Andrade never seemed to hurt Martirosyan, but he clearly showed himself to be the superior fighter. Now that he has won his first championship, it will be interesting to see who he fights next. He could chase one of the other champions at 154 pounds.

Pound-for-pound king Floyd "Money" Mayweather is the WBC and WBA champion. Andrade isn't ready for that challenge, but he could have success against newly-crowned IBF title holder, Carlos Molina.

Molina defeated Ishe Smith on the undercard of the Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez event in September. That seems like a logical move for Andrade if the HBO/Showtime friction doesn't get in the way.

Martirosyan is a tough fighter, but he will have serious issues with any quick 154-pound fighter he faces. He is likely headed for gatekeeper status over the next four years.

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