Angulo overcomes adversity to get title shot

17/10/2006

Angulo overcomes adversity to get title shot

Press Release: The co-feature on the November 4, 2006 Showtime Championship Boxing telecast will showcase WBA lightweight champion Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz against Ecuadorian challenger Fernando “La Fiera” Angulo from Chase Field in Phoenix, Ariz. This bout and the WBO heavyweight title bout between Sergei “White Wolf” Liakhovich and Shannon “The Cannon” Briggs is being promoted by Don King Productions and will air live at 9 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the west coast). Appearing for the first time since signing with King, the 23-year-old Diaz (30-0, 15 KOs) became a world champion at age 20 by scoring a unanimous decision over Lakva Sim in Houston on July 17, 2004.  Diaz, a relentless puncher, is also a junior pre-law major at the University of Houston-Downtown, who hopes to help the less fortunate with legal matters at the conclusion of his boxing career. Standing in the way of the student-boxer’s seventh successful title defense is Angulo (18-3, 12 KOs), a man who had little, if any, of the opportunities afforded the poorest of Americans when he grew up in the jungles of the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest after he fled from abusive parents at age 7.  At 11, he lived alone in the jungle for 18 months, fending for himself by hunting.  When the hunt went poorly, he would subsist on bugs, worms, snakes or anything he could find.  The only thing he wouldn’t eat were frogs as he doesn’t like them.  In another unusual twist, Angulo is managed by Javier Zapata, who also manages Carlos Baldomir. “Both these fighters come from the type of poverty where they are used to fighting for their lives,” Zapata said.  “The only difference between Baldomir and Angulo is that one grew up in the streets and the other one had to survive in the jungle.” Tickets for the event are on sale now at the Chase Field box office, Ticketmaster, or can be charged at (480) 784-4444.