Canelo Alvarez and Alfredo “
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CANELO ALVAREZ AND ALFREDO “EL PERRO” ANGULO MEDIA CONFERENCE CALL TRANSCRIPT Kelly Swanson Thank you, for joining us this morning and this afternoon here on the east coast, very snowy east coast, but we are so excited to be able to announce a fantastic SHOWTIME Pay-Per-View card coming up. On the line joining us today is Canelo Alvarez, former Super Welterweight World Champion and Alfredo Angulo, former WBO Interim Junior Middleweight World Champion. To make the formal introductions and to get the call going I’d like to introduce Richard Schaefer, Chief Executive Officer of Golden Boy Promotions. Richard Schaefer Thank you, Kelly, and hello to everyone back east and here, I guess, on the west as well, and I saw that there were a number of people from Texas calling in as well to this great conference call for this fantastic card. A couple of months ago when I was at home I couldn’t sleep and I found myself zapping and I’d stop on this infomercial channel, and it was amazing. You’re ready to order it and then, “But wait, there is more,” and there seems more and more coming, so I thought, wouldn’t it be great to have a boxing card where people are just going to say I can’t believe that there’s more and more, and then there’s another one, then there’s another one, and that’s exactly what we did here. With this card, “TOE TO TOE,” interesting toe-to-toe in Spanish, in Mexico they don’t call it toe-to-toe, they call it “MANO A MANO,” or hand to hand, whether it’s toe-to-toe or hand-to-hand one thing I can say, it’s going to be all action. On March the 8, we have put together one of the most action packed cards I can remember here at Golden Boy. Of course the main event, Canelo and Alfredo, we’re going to talk about in a few minutes and you’re going to have the chance to ask both fighters questions, but the whole card really is totally loaded with the free view opening up for everyone with a TV set at home Jorge Linares vs. Nihito Arakawa, a 10-round lightweight bout, and then we’re going to move into the Pay- Per-View which is going to be distributed by SHOWTIME Pay-Per- View beginning at 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific, with the first of three world title fights. It’s going to be Carlos Molina against a young Jermall Charlo fighting for Molina’s IBF Junior Middleweight World Championship. From there we are going to be moving into the 12-round WBC Interim Lightweight World Championship, which is going to be a contest between Champion Omar Figueroa, and challenger Ricardo Alvarez, who is the brother of Canelo and is getting his world title fight opportunity here. It would be historic in Mexico since it would be the first time that one family, the Alvarez family, has produced three world champions. As you know, Canelo’s other brother, Rigoberto, was the 154-pound champion, and then of course Canelo as the World Champion, and now Ricardo is going to try to accomplish his dream to become the WBC Lightweight World Champion. From there we’re going to go into the co-main event with one of the most exciting fighters in the sport, irrespective of weight class, Leo Santa Cruz vs. Cristian Mijares, a 12-round WBC Super Bantamweight World Championship. Mijares, well known former World Champion, is going to be an exciting showdown, all action packed there. But wait, there is more, there’s the one we’ve been waiting for and that of course is Canelo vs. Angulo. Both guys really don’t need much introduction. These are two all action fighters coming forward. They love to trade and slug it out in the middle of the ring, and I think March 8th for those fight fans and sports fans and the general public, which likes to be entertained, this is what they’re going to watch this is what they want to watch. The fight will be broadcasted live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Tickets went on sale last Friday. They’re priced very attractively, starting at $25, $50, $100, $200, $400 and $600. As of yesterday close to 6,000 tickets have been sold already, so I do anticipate a sellout on March the 8 at the MGM. The fight is sponsored by Corona and AT&T. Molina and Jermall Charlo is presented as well in association with Warriors Boxing. Now, let’s go to the fighters. First up is Alfredo. I’m going to introduce him, he’s going to make some opening comments and then I’m going to be introducing Canelo. He’s going to make some opening comments and then we’re going to open up the lines for you guys to ask questions. Alfredo Angulo from Mexicali, Baja California, certainly one of the most entertaining fighters with devastating punching power, he always comes to fight. His 2011 battle with James Kirkland is legendary and was a candidate for Fight of the Year. In 2012, he came back and garnered wins over Raul Casarez and Jorge Silva and in 2013 he appeared on his way to get his first world championship when he knocked down Erislandy Lara twice for the Interim WBA Junior Middleweight fight, and then obviously the fight had to be stopped due to an eye injury which Alfredo suffered. Here he is, it’s a fight he wanted for a long time. He has asked me repeatedly “I’d like to fight Canelo” and I’m happy that we were able to make his dream come true, that he has an opportunity to fight on March the 8 against Canelo Alvarez. Before I turn it over to Alfredo, now I want to inform all of you as well that Alfredo Angulo will, right before the press conference starts here in Los Angeles, at 12:40 he has made himself available for the Locks of Love, meaning he’s going to get his hair cut for a charitable cause, Locks of Love, and I very much want to support Alfredo and thank him for that and thank him for bringing attention to this very worthwhile cause. It’s a pleasure for me now to introduce to you Alfredo “El Perro” Angulo. Alfredo Angulo I’m very happy for this opportunity, for this fight. I want to especially thank Richard Schaefer for helping me get this fight. I want to thank all the media that’s present and on this call, and thank you for supporting this fight. Schaefer All right, we’re going to have a chance to ask Alfredo questions in just a moment, but first, I want to introduce to you now one of the true superstars of the sport. He has a record of 42-1-1, with 30 KO’s, comes out of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. He’s the former Super Welterweight World Champion, has been a pro since 2005, when he was just 15- years-old, and is without any question today Mexico’s biggest boxing superstar. He’s 23 years young. He has earned the respect of the Mexican people because of the way he fights, the excitement he brings to the ring, and he has of course a huge female following as well because of his looks and his charisma and the way he carries himself outside of the ring as well. Last year was an important year for Canelo, first, of course when he fought Austin Trout in front of nearly 40,000 fans in San Antonio and if not for the capacity, we would have been able to add more seats we would have had 60,000, 70,000 people there at the Alamodome when he defeated Austin Trout. Then, came the big fight against Floyd Mayweather, which broke all revenue records, and certainly Canelo had a lot to do with that as well, given his growing popularity as a big Mexican star. That September date against Mayweather I think served Canelo, as it will be a lesson for him and I’m sure he’s walking away from this fight having learned a lot and that’s what it is, you know, when you’re a young fighter you challenge yourself against the best and you learn from that, and I’m sure that is exactly what Canelo is taking away from the September showdown against Mayweather. He could have gone against an easy opponent, go back to Texas or do it from Mexico and so on, but, no, he wanted to challenge himself against one of the best at 154, and with Alfredo Angulo he’s getting exactly that. It is a pleasure now for me to introduce to you Saul “El Canelo” Alvarez. Canelo Alvarez I’m very grateful for all the support I’ve had throughout my career, and I’m very happy to be returning into the ring for this fight. Thank you. Schaefer Excellent, thank you. Gracias, Canelo. And now we have questions from the media. Operator, if you could please open up the lines. Q What was your decision making process to select Angulo as your opponent as opposed to the other guys that we had heard were possible, such as Carlos Molina, who holds a world title, Lara, who holds an interim title and also has a TKO victory against Angulo? How did you go about deciding that Angulo was the guy for you? Canelo Basically, the reason why we chose him is because we made a decision that he was the best style for me.