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Will Machismo Help or Hurt Josesito Lopez & Alfredo Angulo?

Machismo is part of professional boxing, especially among prizefighters of Mexican heritage.
Every so often, a prizefighter has to fight the urge to bang it out.
When Josesito Lopez (30-5, 18 Kos) meets Marcos Maidana (pictured, in Showtime photo; 33-3, 30 Kos) in a welterweight clash and Alfredo “El Perro” Angulo (22-2, 18 Kos) meets Erislandy Lara (17-1-2, 11 Kos) in a junior middleweight fight on Saturday June 8, at the Home Depot Center, on Showtime, it’s a perfect time to calm the blood rush of machismo. Otherwise two fighters might be wondering what happened.
Riverside’s Lopez, a Mexican-American, has never been called a pure boxer and has never tried to be a nimble-footed boxing dandy. The best way to describe the lanky welterweight is a prizefighter with a lot of heart. He has some pop, he has a good chin and he will not ever quit.
“He has a lot of heart,” said Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions who consented to match Lopez with Victor Ortiz and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last year. “Even when he was knocked down by Canelo he didn’t quit.”
That’s Lopez.
Argentina’s Maidana is almost cartoonish in appearance. The hard-punching South American visibly looks like a human-shaped anvil ready to squash anyone that dares match him punch for punch. When opponents try to slug it out, a sly devilish smile appears on his face. That alone should scare foes from trying that tact.
“I’m going to do whatever it takes to win,” said Maidana and hopefully that doesn’t include head butts from that squarish-looking head. He doesn’t need anything but those large balloon fists that look inflated with helium.
Lopez has to fight the machismo and utilize his long reach and height advantage much like Erik Morales did a couple of years ago when he fought Maidana. Can he do it? Will he do it?
“I think really the grounds are even and really the best fighter, the smarter fighter is going to win,” Lopez conceded.
But once he gets hit can Lopez refrain from slugging it out?
Machismo plays a big part in his boxing style.
Cuban stylist vs. Mexican stalker
Cuba’s fighting system will literally be at center court when southpaw Erislandy Lara confronts Mexico’s Alfredo “El Perro” Angulo for the interim WBA junior middleweight title.
The swift moving Lara meets the irresistible force of Angulo on Saturday June 8, at the Home Depot tennis stadium.
Since the 1960s the Cuban boxing system has churned out fighting machines on a yearly basis in the amateurs. An endless list of eye-popping talent like the late Teofilo Stevenson emanated from the island nation with their technical precision punching honed to a shiny glow.
Lara has that smooth buttery style of movement and efficiency like a man trained to handle potentially deadly bottles of explosive nitroglycerine. He moves with grace and confidence around the ring despite facing foes with mind sapping power. He credits the Cuban boxing program for his technical prowess.
“I was part of the best system in the world,” said Lara, who won multiple gold medals in boxing as an amateur before defecting to the U.S. “I’ve seen Angulo and I know how he fights. I know what to do.”
Machismo is a major part of Angulo’s Mexican stalker style. When he enters the ring he looks to destroy whoever is in front of him.
Raised in the hard streets of Mexicali, a border town known for violence and mayhem, Angulo was reared from an early age to be able to defend himself with his fists. His straight-forward, full steam-ahead style has brought him thousands of fans who love his penchant for knockouts.
“Erislandy is a good fighter and I am good fighter too. I think this would be a good fight for the belt,” said Angulo, who is now being trained by Virgil Hunter, who also trains Andre Ward. “I’m working on my plan for Lara.”
Training with Hunter in Northern California has its benefits for Angulo, especially if it includes working with speedsters and proficient boxers like Ward and Amir Khan. Though Angulo loves to stalk Mexican style he can box as seen in some of his fights.
Machismo is part of Angulo’s game but will it help or hurt?
Lara expects machismo from the Mexican power slugger.
“I’m a technical fighter and he’s a brawler, and we’ll see who has the longer career,” said Lara. “The Cuban fighters are the best technical fighters in the world.”
Angulo doesn’t fight with words.
“I’ll see you in the ring,” said Angulo during a recent telephone press conference.
Can machismo beat technique on Saturday?
Other bouts of interest
Undefeated Ronny Rios (20-0, 9 Kos) of Southern California fights Leonilo Miranda (32-5, 30 Kos) in a featherweight clash. Earlier this year Rios defeated former world champion Rico Ramos.
Japan’s Yoshihiro Kamegai (22-0-1, 19 Kos) appears on American shores and faces Johan Perez (16-1-1, 12 Kos) in a battle of welterweight knockout artists.
Prized prospect Jermell Charlo (20-0, 10 Kos) tests Demetrius Hopkins (33-2-1, 13 Kos) in a junior middleweight fight.
Former U.S. Olympian Joseph Diaz (4-0, 2 Kos) of South El Monte, Ca. fights Rigoberto Casillas (8-11-1) in a junior featherweight six round match.
Ireland’s Jamie Kavanagh (13-0-1, 5 Kos), who is trained by Freddie Roach, fights Sergio Perez (28-14, 19 Kos) in a lightweight bout.
Former USC football star Gerald Washington (7-0, 5 Kos) fights rugged Sherman “The Tank” Williams (35-12-2) in a heavyweight collision set for eight rounds.
The first bout starts at 2:15 p.m. Pacific Coast time. Doors open at 2 p.m.
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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.
Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.
“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.
Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.
After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.
Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.
One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”
Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.
“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”
Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.
A real fight was happening.
Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.
Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.
In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.
“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”
Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.
In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.
“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”
Espinoza Wins
WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.
“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.
Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.
Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.
It was Espinoza’s third title defense.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.
The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.
The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.
Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.
Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.
A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.
In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.
Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.
Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.
In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.
Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.
Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Canelo Alvarez Upends Dancing Machine William Scull in Saudi Arabia

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who has acquired a new nickname – “The Face of Boxing” – is accustomed to fighting on Cinco De Mayo weekend, but this year was different. For the first time, Canelo was fighting outside the continent of North America and entering the ring at an awkward hour. His match with William Scull started at 6:30 on a Sunday morning in Riyadh.
In the opposite corner was 32-year-old William Scull, an undefeated (23-0) Cuban by way of Germany, whose performance was better suited to “Dancing With the Stars” than to a world title fight. Constantly bouncing from side to side but rarely letting his hands go, Scull frustrated Canelo who found it near-impossible to corner him, but one can’t win a fight solely on defense and the Mexican superstar was returned the rightful winner in a bout that was a fitting cap to a desultory two days of Saudi-promoted prizefighting. The scores were 115-113, 116-112, and 119-109. In winning, Canelo became a fully unified super middleweight champion twice over.
Terence Crawford was in attendance and HE Turki Alalshikh made it official: Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) will meet in the Fight of the Century (Alalshikh’s words) on Sept. 12 in Las Vegas at the home of the city’s NFL team, the Raiders. For whatever it’s worth, each of Canelo’s last seven fights has gone the full 12 rounds.
Semi-wind-up
In a match between the WBC world cruiserweight title-holder and the WBC world cruiserweight “champion in recess” (don’t ask), the former, Badou Jack, brought some clarity to the diadem by winning a narrow decision over Noel Mikaelian. One of the judges had it a draw (114-114), but the others gave the fight to “Jack the Ripper” by 115-113 scores.
A devout Muslim who is now a full-time resident of Saudi Arabia, the Sweden-born Jack, a three-division title-holder, had the crowd in his corner. Now 41 years old, he advanced his record to 29-3-3 (17). It was the first pro loss for Mikaelian (27-1), a Florida-based Armenian who was subbing for Ryan Rozicki.
The distracted CompuBox operator credited Mikaelian with throwing 300 more punches but there was no controversy.
Tijuana’s Jaime Munguia, a former junior middleweight title-holder, avenged his shocking loss to Bruno Sarace with a unanimous 12-round decision in their rematch. This was Munguia’s first fight with Eddy Reynoso in his corner. The scores were 117-111 and 116-112 twice.
Surace’s one-punch knockout of Munguia in mid-December in Tijuana was the runaway pick for the 2024 Upset of the Year. Heading in, Munguia was 44-1 with his lone defeat coming at the hands of Canelo Alvarez. Munguia had won every round against Surace before the roof fell in on him.
Surace won a few rounds tonight, but Munguia was the busier fighter and landed the cleaner shots. It was the first pro loss for Surace (26-1-2) and ended his 23-fight winning streak. The Frenchman hails for Marseilles.
Heavyweights
In a 10-round heavyweight match fought at a glacial pace, Martin Bakole (21-2-1) and Efe Ajagba (20-1-1) fought to a draw. One of the judges favored Ajagba 96-94 but he was outvoted by his cohorts who each had it 95-95.
Bakole, a 7/2 favorite, came in at 299 pounds, 15 more than he carried in his signature win over Jared Anderson, and looked sluggish. He was never able to effectively close off the ring against the elusive Ajagba who fought off his back foot and failed to build on his early lead.
The fight between the Scotch-Congolese campaigner Bakole and his Nigerian-American foe was informally contested for the heavyweight championship of Africa. That “title” remains vacant.
In a 6-rounder, heavy-handed Cuban light heavyweight Brayon Leon, a stablemate of Canelo Alvarez, was extended the distance for the first time while advancing his record to 7-0 at the expense of Mexico’s Aaron Roche (11-4-1). Leon knocked Roche to the canvas in the fourth round with a right-left combination, but the Mexican stayed the course while eating a lot of hard punches.
Photo credit: Leigh Dawney / Queensberry Promotions
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