Huh? Angulo is Angulo. Margarito is Margarito. Both employ a style that requires tactical footwork. IMHO, Margarito never exhibited that footwork against a high level opponent. Angulo + Hill did. IMHO, this is Angulo's best performance to date. Unfortunately maybe his last. Yes he was taking a lot of punishment from a top level PURE Boxer while tracking him down. Margarito was taking a lot of punishment against Boxer Punchers who decided to Box him. Can't see the difference there? Do you think Margarito would not have taken the same punishment? I think Marg would have taken all the shots and been stopped, but I don't think Margarito would get any KDs. Who was P-Will though? Nobody. You can't lose to or even have a war with a nobody then get a big fight. If any other fighter tried that Boxing media would laugh in his face. The ducking line is crap. Same went for P-Will when he let Quintana derail him. You can't be bigger than a guy and get pushed back down a weight division and get caught cheating and say that.
I didn't toss it out. I put question marks there. The guy was busted for cheating in a HUGE fight. You don't start cheating in huge fights. You cheat in huge fights because you feel COMFORTABLE from doing it in smaller ones. I can't help but be a bit doubtful when I contrast the before and after the scandal of his career. He went from unstoppable iron fisted machine to going rounds and getting stopped. Hell in the beginning he was going rounds with and losing to nobodies. It isn't about sleeping. The style he employed worked, but I never saw the footwork that completed the circle for the style against high level opponents (Master Boxers). He lost or struggled at key moments in his career and THAT is what stopped him from getting big fights. Not ducking. That is my only bias.
The fact that he rose from the canvas twice shows me Lara's the real deal. Angulo is most likely the hardest punching JMW and those left hooks would have KO'd most of the division. Lara vs. Trout, Kirkland or Cotto in the fall will show whether or not he's worth the hype.
To me, lara looked weak and maybe over trained. seemed like everytime he took a solid shot to the head he went down. It's only because angulo is so damn slow that he could only land two head shots in the whole fight. but, lara is clearly the better fighter...he just don't have a chin. And he was beating the absolute sh8t outta angulo. I'm impressed that angulo is still alive and walking around after that obscene abuse he took. tough dude.
the other thing about lara is, to me he doesn't have the focus of a champion. ...it's like he gets bored or mentally distracted after a couple of rounds. that's when the other guys have a shot to outhustle him or to land a good shot like angulo did. It's like lara started off sharp...then his focus shifted and he got dropped...he got back up, put in a couple of great rounds, regained control of the fight, then his focus shifted again and he got dropped again. then he refocused and put together some brutal combinations to stop el perro. lara might just need to see a psychologist about his inability to maintain his concentration in the ring...he's done this in the past a couple of times.