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HBO Boxing After Dark Recap

February 14, 2009

BankAtlantic Center-Sunrise, Florida

Junior Middleweight (154 pounds) 10-Round Match:

Alfredo Angulo (14-0, 11 KO's, 153.5 pounds) vs. Cosme Rivera (31-11-2, 1 NC, 22 KO's, 151.5 pounds)

Angulo had a solid amateur boxing career that culminated when he represented Mexico in the 165-pound division at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics.

Currently, Angulo is Antonio Margarito's featured sparring partner. The work with Margarito has forced Angulo to become an all action boxer. This is especially important considering Freddie Roach has reported that Margarito has been loading up his hand wraps in sparring sessions, too.

Angulo's last match was a sickening technical knockout victory at 2:27 of round 10 over Andrey Tsurkan on October 4, 2008 at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, California. The match should have been stopped in round 5, after Angulo had already beaten Tsurkan to the point of being somewhat unresponsive. However, no one involved used good judgment and Angulo was forced to continue beating on Tsurkan to the point the HBO commentators were predicting death for Tsurkan. In round 10, Angulo had put such a beating on Tsurkan that Jim Lampley screamed out from his position doing play-by-play of the event for HBO for Tsurkan to "GO DOWN!" Still, the match continued and Angulo continued to savage Tsurkan. Finally, Tsurkan's corner threw in the towel to end the match with 33 seconds to go in the match. This match was not so much a testament to Angulo's greatness, but the abominable bloodsport boxing can become when incompetent people are allowed to make decisions about competitor safety. Angulo had 400 total connects, while Tsurkan had 143 total connects. Angulo landed 296 power punches to Tsurkan's 76 power punches, a difference of 220 power connects. Angulo landed an average of 30 power punches per round at asickening 49% power connect percentage. A full recap of that beating can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/2/27/recap-of-alfredo-angulo-vs-andrey-tsurkan.html 

Angulo is unranked by The Ring magazine, and currently ranked by boxrec.com as the number 7 boxer in the world at 154 pounds.

Rivera turned pro at 16-years-old on January 1, 1993 with a 4-round draw against Cachorron Diaz in Mexico.

Rivera would go on to spend the next several years improving and eventually become a borderline contender. He earned 1 shot at a major world title losing. After being knocked down twice, Rivera losta title match at 147 pounds to Zab Judah via technical knockout at 2:11 of round 3 on May 14, 2005 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Since that match, Rivera has been primarily been serving the role of gatekeeper to upcoming prospects in the 147-pound division.Riverawas the boxer used to test Andre Berto to see if he was ready for a title shot. The boxer from Mexico proved dangerous knocking down Berto in round 6, but lost the other 9 rounds of the 10 round match on 2 of the judges' scorecards.

The veteran is coming in as a very late replacement for this match. Ricardo Mayorga had been scheduled to face Angulo in this match. However, Mayorga pulled out 11 days before the event, because he wanted more money to go through with the match. Danny Perez then agreed to face Angulo for $80,000. Perez then changed his mind about facing Angulo almost immediately after accepting the offer to face Angulo. Perez decided he would not face Angulo unless he got more then the $80,000 he had agreed to take for the match. With 4 days notice, Rivera agreed to step in and face Angulo.

Rivera's last match was a technical knockout victory at 2:50 of round 3 over Bobby Joe Valdez on August 8, 2008 in Sacramento, California at Raley Field, where the Oakland A's Triple-A franchise plays.

Rivera is unranked by The Ring, and currently ranked by boxrec.com as the number 78 boxer in the world at 147 pounds.

At 26-years-old, Angulo is 6 years younger then the 32-year-old Rivera. Rivera has the height advantage standing 6' 1" tall, while Angulo stands 5' 10.5" tall. Angulo has the reach advantage with a 71" wingspan, compared to the 69" wingspan of Rivera. Angulo has a huge weight advantage in the ring having unofficially rehydrated to 165 pounds approaching match time. On HBO's unofficial scales, Rivera has lost 1.5 pounds since the official weigh-ins and is down to 150 pounds approaching match time. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance.

The unified rules of boxing are in effect for this event. All of the official judges keeping score of this match from ringside are from Florida. The referee is Tellis Assimenios. Harold Lederman will keeping unofficial score of this event for HBO.

With over 1:30 to go in round 1, Angulo is cut over his right eye. That cut around Angulo's right eye is bad and appears to be dripping directly into the eye. Angulo gets cut frequently during his matches, and bleeding no longer impedes his ability to box effectively. Therefore, the 2004 Olympian is still landing power punches with both hands on Rivera. Behind the solid power punching, Angulo takes round 1, 10-9. The referee has incorrectly ruled that Angulo was cut by a punch. Replays clearly show Angulo was cut by an unintentional clash of heads. A close up shot in the corner reveals that the cut is directly above Angulo's eye slightly under his eyebrow, It has to be impairing his vision. This is the type of cut that could lead to an early stoppage. An apparently over-matched veteran like Rivera should be savvy enough to work on that cut, because a premature stoppage would give him a win via technical knockout. Lederman scores round 1 for Angulo, 10-9. To open up round 2, Rivera wisely started aiming left hooks at Angulo's damaged eye. Angulo lands numerous power punches in the last minute of round 2. That wins Angulo round 2, 10-9. However after round 2, the cut above Angulo's right eye has become sickeningly wide. It is not bleeding much, but that cut is getting to the point it may be too dangerous for Angulo to continue. Angulo wins round 3 huge. Without a knockdown Angulo wins round 3, 10-8. The referee came close to stopping the match several times in round 3. Rivera's corner will need to throw in the towel if round 4 is the same as round 3. Angulo is too big and strong for Rivera. According to CompuBox, in round 3, Angulo landed 51 of the 79 power punches he threw, for a 65% power connect percentage. That is practically inhuman. In round 3, Rivera only threw 50 total punches. After 3 rounds, Angulo leads on my scorecard, 30-26. Angulo takes round 3 on Lederman's scorecard 10-8, and is ahead on the Lederman scorecard after 3 rounds, 30-26.

Angulo continues to dominate Rivera taking round 4, 10-9. Rivera staggered back to his corner after round 4 and told his corner he was tired. That should be taken as code that they need to stop the match. Lederman scores round 4 for Angulo, 10-8. In rounds 3 and 4, Angulo has landed 103 total punches, while Rivera has only landed 24 total punches. If this keeps up, Rivera is going to get seriously hurt. The HBO commentators think Rivera's corner man should have listened to their boxer and ended the match in the corner after round 4. Finally, after Rivera had taken a ridiculous amount of unnecessary punishment someone from the Florida athletic commission rushed the ring to stop the match with 20 seconds to go in round 5. Apparently, the official went into the ring when they were told to stop the match by Rivera's corner. That of course took several seconds where Rivera was hit a few more times. Rivera's cornercould have rushed the ring or thrown in the towel themselves, which would have saved their charge about 5 unnecessary punches to the head. In fact, they could have thrown in the towel when their boxer was being battered in round 3. Rivera's corner could have stopped the match at the end of round 4, when their charge was trapped in the corner and being beaten by Angulo. They certainly should have stopped it in the corner after round 4. They also could have stopped it in any of the earlier 2:40 of round 5 that Angulo was beating on the virtually helpless Rivera. Generally a poor job done by Rivera's corner. Also, the referee should have stopped this match several times in round 3. He should have stopped it when Rivera was pinned in the corner to end round 4. He too should have stopped it numerous times in round 5. Terrible job by the referee and corner, whose primary job is to protect the safety of the competitors.

The official outcome courtesy of the legendary Michael Buffer is that at: 2:38 of round 5 the referee has stopped the contest making the winner by technical knockout and still undefeated, Alfredo "El Perro" Angulo. The win moves Angulo to 15-0 with now 12 wins coming by way of knockout.

The final punhstat numbers have Angulo landing 217 of the 467 total punches he threw, for a 46% total connect percentage. Rivera landed 84 of the 300 total punches he threw, for a 28% total connect percentage.

Angulo was great in this match. He may have problems with more defensive oriented boxers in the future. However, he appears ready for a title shot. This was his eleventh straight win by knockout, 10 of which have come before the end of round 5. Angulo has scary power and it almost seems unfair to match him against anything but the elite at 154 pounds. If Angulo continues to box against 154-pounders outside the top 10, he is so dominant he may literally end up killing one of them. Angulo is the number 1 contender to Sergei Dzindziruk's belt at 154 pounds. Therefore, that is the next logical match for Angulo.

Rivera took this match on short notice and at a weight class above where he normally competes. He appeared to suffer no permanent damage in this and should be back competing on ESPN in his gatekeeper role in about 4 months.

This was a bad event to watch. The boxing action was not entertaining. The first match featured dangerously irresponsible corner work and refereeing. Unless a viewer was looking for a show to get righteously indignant about, this was not worth watching. Even then it is probably outside the top 3 boxing events worthy of outrage within the last 6 months. That is a really sad comment about boxing.