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Bradley, Angulo Get Big Wins
By Barbara Pinnella
HBO’s Boxing After Dark televised two good fights for the
fans this Saturday night. Timothy Bradley (26-0, 11 KO’s)
not only kept his unbeaten streak alive while handing Luis
Carlos Abregu (29-1-23 KO’s) his first lost of his
professional career, but retained the WBO Junior
Welterweight Championship as well.
Bradley was far and away the fan favorite here at the Agua
Caliente Casino Resort in Rancho Mirage, California, as he
is from nearby Palm Springs. The “Bradley” chants were heard
frequently, and he definitely gave his fans something to
cheer about. Later at the press conference Abregu did say
that he injured his right hand, but make no mistake, Bradley
came to win.
In the first round Timothy suffered a cut from a head butt
over his right eye, something that was quite a surprise to
him, and not what a fighter is thrilled to see in the first
of a scheduled 12 rounds.
That first round was an extremely active one, with both
fighters getting in some good shots. In round two it looked
as if it would be an early and easy night for Bradley, as he
landed a huge right hand that really rocked Abregu, but Luis
was able to survive that until the bell.
The Bradley attack continued throughout round three, but in
the fourth Luis Carlos had his strongest round of the fight,
although along the way he suffered a cut over his left eye.
Until this round, Abregu did not look like the undefeated
fighter that he was, but he looked a lot better here.
Unfortunately for him, this was a short-lived moment, and
the fight went back to being The Bradley Show.
In the sixth round there was a huge head butt that hurt
Abregu and caused the referee to call a time out, but Luis
Carlos came back from that quickly. Still, in this round and
for the remainder of the fight, he could find no answer for
Timothy’s assault. Don’t get me wrong, Bradley was not
perfect here. He threw some really wild shots that would
have taken Abregu’s head off had they connected, but his
excitement caused misses.
Still, at the end of 12 action-packed rounds, the UD went to
Bradley; 118-110, 116-112, and 117-111.
At the press conference, Bradley said, “I’ve heard it my
whole career – I’m too short, I have no power, I’m not
disciplined enough, I have no skills…but I keep winning,
baby!
“You know, you have to be a risk-taker if you want to go
somewhere in life. A lot of fighters out there don’t want to
take the risk of losing. I don’t care if I lose, because I
know it’s going to make me better. A loss will make you
stronger if you’re a winner, and that’s what I am. I’m not
afraid to lose.”
When asked about the cut he suffered in the first round,
Bradley was making people laugh as he explained his
thoughts. “I was like, ‘Oh, I’m cut, oh man!’ Then it was
dripping into my eye and messing with my vision and I
thought of that video game, Round Four, where it says ‘You
get cut and it gets down in your eye and your eye gets kind
of blurry,’ and I thought about that in the ring, and I’m
thinking, ‘Oh, that’s real!’ Then I had to wipe my eye and
it got even more blurry! But my corner took care of it, and
it wasn’t bothering me at all. I didn’t feel it.”
So who does Bradley want to fight next? “I want to fight the
best fighters in the world. Manny Pacquiao is the number one
fighter in the world. I want to fight the best, and that’s
Pacquiao. Or I’d fight Mayweather. God put me in this
position for a reason. And I want to tell everybody right
now; don’t be surprised when I beat one of those guys!”
I have to say something about Abregu here. While he
obviously could not keep up with Bradley, he got hit with
many hard shots and stayed in the fray. On more than one
occasion it seemed as if the fight would be over, only to
see him come back. Luis Carlos showed his toughness, and
deserves to be praised for that.
In a fight that went the opposite of the main event, Alfredo
“Perro” Angulo (19-1, 16 KO’s) made short work of Canadian
Joachim Alcine (32-2, 19 KO’s). For about the first 30 or 45
seconds Alcine jumped right on Angulo and was very
aggressive, but Alfredo would have none of that. He put on
an attack that was relentless, and Alcine could do nothing
to escape. At 2:59 of the first round referee Lou Moret had
to jump in and stop the fight. Angulo’s 46% connection rate
of power punches rendered his opponent helpless. This fight
had been scheduled for 12 rounds, and was a WBC Super
Welterweight Title Elimination Bout.
Many now feel that it is past time for Angulo to make his
title run, and neither Alfredo nor his promoter Gary Shaw
will turn down any fight. Both are ready for anybody. Shaw
stated that he would like “Perro” to fight three times a
year, to which Angulo quipped, “No, four.” No surprise here,
as Alfredo has told me before that he would fight once a
month of Gary would let him.
Whether once a month or once a year, Angulo brings a lot of
excitement to the ring and has an ever-growing fan base. Now
he just has to wait and see who steps up to the plate for
him.
The first of six undercard fights was a six/eight round
Lightweight fight between Abraham Lopez (12-0, 10 KO’s) and
Willshaun Boxley (5-7, 3 KO’s). Lopez was able to keep that
undefeated streak going when the fight was stopped at the
end of round three after Boxley’s corner told the referee to
stop the fight.
In his professional debut, Joel Diaz (1-0, 1 KO) completely
dominated Rene Torrez (0-3-1) in this scheduled four round
Featherweight fight. Diaz showed some good skills for as
long as this fight lasted, easily winning round one. He got
his first win and knock out at .23 of the second round,
after a good left by Diaz dropped Torrez.
The women stepped into the ring for a fight scheduled for
four rounds in a Female Junior Flyweight contest. Local girl
Gloria Salas (3-4-1, 1 KO) won a unanimous decision over
Katarina De La Cruz (0-4-1), 40-36, 39-37, 40-36. The
smaller Salas was tenacious in here, and this was a fun
fight to watch. It was the first time I had seen women
fight, and I quite enjoyed it.
In an eight round Junior Welterweight fight Art Hovhannesyan
(12-0-1, 6 KO’s) kept his flawless record as he defeated
Christian Favela (19-28-6, 10 KO’s). This fight was not at
all appreciated by the crowd in attendance, and I must
admit, it was a long 24 minutes of fighting. The pace did
pick up in the last few rounds, but Art was always the
aggressor in this one. Hovhannesyan got the UD, 78-74,
77-75, and 77-75, but watching it, it didn’t seem that
close. The biggest cheers during this fight came when they
announcer said that it was the eighth and final round –
kinda sad.
Another short fight saw Antonio DeMarco (24-2-1, 17 KO’s)
control Daniel Attah (24-6-1, 8 KO’s) in what was to be a 10
round Junior Welterweight bout. DeMarco dropped Attah in the
first round and finished things off in the second. A big
left dropped Daniel, but he got up to try to fight on. It
was not happening however, and the fight was stopped at 2:30
of the second round after Attah could not answer back
against a DeMarco attack.
The rainbow-haired Ruffino Serrano (6-3) might have caused
some laughs with his hair, but Eduardo Cruz (1-1, 1 KO)
wasn’t laughing when Serrano easily got the UD in the four
round Junior Lightweight bout; 39-37, 40-36, 40-36. This was
an entertaining and action-packed fight.
Congratulations to all the winners on that night, especially
to Timothy Bradley for his outstanding victory, and to
Alfredo “Perro” Angulo for entertaining us as he played his
own brand of Demolition Derby.
Be safe and God Bless
Viva La Raza,
Barb.
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