Angel Hernandez held the NABF Light Middleweight title in 2002 and mounted an unsuccessful bid to unseat IBF Champion Winky Wright in 2003 but the 33 year old Chicago resident has been struggling to regain his foothold in the upper classes of the American boxing scene until upsetting middleweight prospect James McGirt Jr last night at Mallory Square in Key West, FL.

Hernandez was coming off a one-sided loss to light middle contender Vanes Martirosian in June and was to be a step in the rebuilding program of southpaw McGirt Jr, who was coming off a draw against the unheralded Marcus Upshaw in November.

But "El Toro" refused to be a stepping stone and came forward for all ten rounds against McGirt, outworking the 26 year old son of famed trainer and ex-world champion boxer "Buddy" McGirt, in what was a close contest.

Hernandez convinced the judges by marks of 96-94 twice and 96-95 to improve to 29-7 (16) while McGirt has now won just one of his last four outings to drop to 19-2-1 (9).

On the undercard, light middle Ermosele Albert, 22-2-1 (1), posted a ten round UD against Germaine Sanders, 27-7 (17), while welter Damian Frias, 16-1 (7), pulled off a ten round points verdict against Edwin Algarin, 10-6-1 (6).

Heavyweight Darrel Madison, 13-1 (3), defeated Domonic Jenkins, 13-11-1 (6), after six rounds on points.

In a war of wills and attrition, after being hurt considerably by a left hook in round five, Alfredo “Perro” Angulo weathered the storm and came back to stop Richard Gutierrez at 2:48 of the very same round to capture the vacant WBO Inter-Continental Light Middleweight Title. The bout was the second televised event of an excellent fight card put together by Gary Shaw Productions and HBO in Primm, NV on Saturday night.

The two exceptionally tough light middleweights wasted no time in the opening round, standing toe to toe and digging hard shots up and down on each other’s head and torso. Colombia’s Gutierrez showed a better defense early on, landing the more telling blows to seemingly take an action packed round one that left the crowd cheering.

Gutierrez also showed surprising strength early on, backing Angulo into the ropes from time to time. Angulo, who fought in the Olympics for Mexico, was calm and collected in only his 13th professional fight 13-0 (10) against his toughest and most experienced opponent to date in Gutierrez 24-2 (14). The 29 year old Gutierrez had taken world class fighter, Joshua Clottey to the limit almost two years ago in a close majority decision loss.

Angulo made some adjustments, being a bit more elusive, switching to a southpaw stance, and attacking the body ferociously, producing some wild exchanges in the second and third rounds. The hard punching Angulo noticeably hurt Gutierrez towards the end of round three, forcing Gutierrez to box more off the back foot for a while.

The fourth round was clearly Angulo’s best as he started to take the fight over, winning most of the wild exchanges and showing some movement and underrated boxing skills, developed by sparring the past couple years with some of the best opponents that the Southern California gym scene has to offer. More...