By Dan Rafael of ESPN
In July 2010, Mexico’s Angulo, one of the most exciting fighters in boxing, blew away Joachim Alcine in the first round of a junior middleweight title eliminator and was on his way to big things. However, it came to light that he was in the United States illegally at around the same time his close relationship with promoter Gary Shaw was fractured by Angulo turning down a career-high payday to challenge middleweight champion Sergio Martinez in the fall of 2010.
Under that deal, Shaw had gotten HBO to guarantee Angulo a comeback fight if he lost and convinced a sanctioning organization to leave him at No. 1 in its junior middleweight rankings, win or lose. But Angulo turned down the offer and was eventually sent back to Mexico, his career in limbo for the past 13 months. Last week, Golden Boy finalized the purchase of his promotional contract from Shaw. Angulo is still unable to enter the United States, but his new promoter regularly puts on shows in Mexico. And although Golden Boy didn’t promote this particular card, Angulo finally returned to action, albeit briefly, in his hometown on Saturday.
Facing Gomez, a journeyman, Angulo barely broke a sweat. With star trainer Nacho Beristain now in his corner, and a national audience watching on Televisa in Mexico and ESPN3/ESPN Deportes in the United States, Angulo needed just 84 seconds to blow away Gomez, 26, of Bloomfield, N.M., who lost his third consecutive fight and fourth in his last five — three of the losses coming by knockout.
Angulo, who turned 29 three days before the fight, ended the mismatch in a hurry. He landed a right-left combination to the body followed by a right hand that was clearly behind the head and then a window-dressing left hook to the body. None of the blows seemed all that damaging, but Gomez dropped to his knees from the shot behind the head, which perhaps messed up his balance. Referee Jose Cobian reached seven and then surprisingly waved off the count, which Gomez would have beaten had Cobian continued counting to 10.
Regardless, it was pretty clear Gomez wasn’t interested in going on, and it was obvious that had the fight continued, it wouldn’t have been for long. So Angulo gets his quickie comeback fight and the question now becomes: Can Golden Boy help him get his immigration paperwork ironed out so Angulo can fight in the U.S. again, and if not, can the promoter put together a significant fight for him in Mexico? Golden Boy also promotes Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who has a title at junior middleweight. Alvarez-Angulo would be an enormous fight in Mexico — one certainly big enough to convince HBO to bring its cameras and big checkbook south of the border.