Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. will be coming off of a long 1 1/2 year layoff on December 1 to fight Alfredo Angulo in a 10 round bout on the undercard of WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
Chavez Jr. vs. Angulo won’t be televised on the PPV portion of the card. It’ll be shown on regular Showtime along with the Adonis Stevenson vs. Oleksander Gvozdyk fight in a split site doubleheader. Chavez Jr. vs. Angulo will be shown on Showtime, YouTube and Facebook,starting at 6:45 p.m. ET. The PPV part of the Showtime broadcast will begin at 9:00 p.m. ET.
The news of Chavez Jr. being added to the Wilder-Fury card was officially announced on Friday.
WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis ‘Superman’ Stevenson vs. interim WBC 175 lb champion Oleksander Gvozdyk will be the first fight on the Showtime regular broadcast followed by the Chavez Jr. vs. Angulo fight. Stevenson-Gvozdyk fight will be taking place at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City, Canada.
Chavez Jr. (50-3-1, 32 KOs) will be trying to ramp up for a big money fight by facing journeyman Angulo (24-7, 20 KOs), and then add another scalp or two to his collection before going after one of the big names. The problems is there are so few top guys that can bring the 33-year-old Chavez Jr. the money that he’s become accustomed to getting. Unless Chavez Jr. can get one of the top super middleweights like Callum Smith or Gilberto ‘Zurdo Ramirez to fight him, he’s not going to make the big money in his comeback.
Angulo, 36, is well past his prime at this point in his career. He left his best behind him nine years ago when he was beaten by Kermit Cintron in 2009. Since that fight, it’s been a long slide to the bottom for the aging 2004 Olympian Angulo. His lack of hand speed is what hindered his career in the pro ranks. There was never anything with Angulo’s punching power. It was always his slow hands and feet that limited his potential. Angulo is now glacially slow at 36, and not the fighter that he once was when he was campaigning at junior middleweight. Angulo now fights at 168, a division that he’s ill-suited in terms of size. There aren’t too many 5’9″ super middleweights in the division that are excelling at the top. Angulo would be so much better off if he would lose some weight and drop back down to 160 or 154, but it doesn’t look like that’s in the cards for him.
The Chavez Jr. vs. Angulo fight has been talked about for months, and it was hard to believe that it would ever happen. It’s surprising that the fight did get finally made. It’s unfortunate for Chavez Jr. and Angulo that their fight won’t be one of the fights that will make it onto the PPV portion of the Showtime broadcast, but those choice sports will be left to actual contenders and not past their prime fighters.
“I am excited to be back on Dec. 1 to perform for the great Mexican fans in Los Angeles,” said Chavez. “At my weight I know I can beat anyone. I am focused and feel strong. Angulo will be first, but then I will pursue a belt at 168. I’m putting the division on notice. Chavez is back.”
Chavez Jr. sounds deluded in talking about himself. He speaks of himself being capable of beating anyone at his weight, but he fails to say what that weight is. Chavez Jr. might should probably think about moving up to light heavyweight, because he struggles to make 168, and he always has since he moved up to the weight division five years ago. In Chavez’s last fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez, he looked horrible. Despite huge hype going into the fight, it was a disappointing contest. Chavez Jr. looked weak from struggling to make the 164.5 lb weigh-in limit for the fight.
Angulo is coming into the fight with Chavez on the back of two defeats at the hands of Sergio Mora and Freddy Hernandez. Angulo did fight Mora close in losing to him by an eight round split decision last April. But we’re talking about a past his best 37-year-old Mora, who hadn’t fought in two years since losing twice in a row to Daniel Jacobs. Angulo can still punch, and that’s helped him in the Mora fight. It’s just that his slow hands weren’t enough for him to get the ‘W’ in that fight. If Angulo had been able to catch up to Mora often enough to land his shots, he would have knocked him out the way that Jacobs did in his two stoppage losses.
Angulo’s record in his last seven fights is a horrible 2-7. Angulo is long overdo for retirement, and it’s unclear why didn’t do that already. Angulo can keep his career sputtering along if he can beat Chavez Jr. Scoring a knockout would be a big fete for Angulo, as chavez Jr. is hard to knockout. Saul Canelo Alvarez wasn’t able to hurt Chavez Jr. in their 12 round fight last year, although it looked to some like Alvarez was taking it easy on him after the first few rounds. The fight was so one-sided that Canelo looked like he felt sorry for Chavez Jr. and was trying to help him look good by going to the ropes occasionally to give him some moments to shine.
“I have been training very hard in anticipation of this fight and this is the best I have felt in a long time,” Angulo said. “I am looking forward to defeating Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and getting a title opportunity in the near future. I promise to surprise a lot of people on Dec. 1.”
Angulo might not be the fighter he was 10 years ago, but he’s still every big as powerful. Unlike Chavez Jr., who struggles to make 168, Angulo easily makes the weight and is powerful in the division. If Chavez Jr. stands in front of Angulo for 12 rounds, he’s going to take a lot of punishment and may end up getting stopped.