Alfredo Angulo vs Gabriel Rosado Preview

Michael Nelson previews tomorrow's Friday Night Fights main event between junior-middleweights Alfredo Angulo and Gabriel Rosado.

It didn't take long for the riders to flee, but it never does. In their place were the calls of "exposed" echoing around the empty halls of Alfredo Angulo's bandwagon.

Angulo had just lost a competitive decision to Kermit Cintron. Those who said he was a lumbering slugger with little skill reveled in glory. After all, their flys were open ready to urinate on Angulo's skill level and potential well before May 30th. And naturally, when a prospect falls short in a fight they're expected to win, the naysayers' voices will resonate louder than the voices of those who remain supporters.

Although I'm generally not an advocate of excuses - when a fighter looks bad, 95% of the time it's a direct result of what his opponent is doing - I feel there's a legitimate question as to whether Alfredo was 100% that night. He only gained four pounds between the weigh-in and the ring entrance, a sharp decline from the usual 10 pounds he gains. Moreover, Boxing After Dark commentator Bob Papa noted that Angulo came into the fighter's meeting the day before looking sickly and drained. The anecdote seems to corroborate Angulo and promoter Gary Shaw's steadfast story that he had a stomach virus in the days leading up to the bout.

But a larger point is, when did it become a crime to lose to a contender in your 14th professional fight? Kermit Cintron fought his most disciplined fight to date, jabbing and moving on the outside while becoming an octopus on the inside. I suspect Margarito would've had a bit more trouble with him if Cintron fought with the same mentality a year and a half ago.

Nevertheless, Angulo begins his road to redemption against tough spoiler Gabriel Rosado Friday night. The 6' Philladelphian upset James Moore and Kasim Ouma, and gave the promising Dominican prospect Fernando Guerrero a scare by dropping him in the 3rd round of their fight. Guerrero got up to win a unanimous decision.

Angulo will look to be spectacular to wash away the bitter taste of the Cintron defeat. Becoming the first man to stop Rosado will go a long way towards reestablishing some of the tread he lost. Expect him to work his way inside and focus on slamming left hooks and right hands into Rosado's lanky midsection as Gabriel tries to build on the blueprint Cintron drew up in May. If Rosado pulls off another upset, Angulo's ascension towards being an HBO attraction will be derailed and a reclamation project that may take years would undoubtedly follow.

Props go to ESPN 2 - the drama of whether Angulo can rebuke the 'exposed' label along with the action that it promises to bring should make for the third solid Friday Night Fights headliner in a row.

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