Alfredo Angulo has blunt words for his countryman Canelo Alvarez’s fighting reluctance

Alfredo Angulo, to quote a political line of old, knows Canelo Alvarez. He fought Canelo Alvarez.

So, on Tuesday, Angulo discussed Canelo Alvarez’s decision to yield at the option of fighting Gennady Golovkin immediately, issuing a follow-up promise from a post-fight pledge on May 7 to fight Golovkin next.

Instead, Alvarez opted to surrender his World Boxing Council middleweight belt to Golovkin, chose obscure junior-middleweight champion Liam Smith of England for a Sept. 17 bout at AT&T Stadium outside Dallas and gave a follow-up promise to fight Golovkin in September 2017 without a binding contract.

“A lot of people might think it’s just a business,” Angulo said, addressing the idea that the delay is being orchestrated by Alvarez’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya. “They probably want to build up the fight like they did with [Floyd] Mayweather and [Manny] Pacquiao.

“But [Alvarez] said after his fight that he wasn’t afraid of Golovkin, that he was going to fight him in his next fight. That he’d rather give up his belt than fight him – what opinion can another Mexican who fights anybody pass other than he’s a coward.”

Blunt words, but Angulo (24-5, 20 knockouts) has shown he’s willing to take on – and lose – to tough opponents, including Alvarez (a technical-knockout loss in March 2014), Cuban junior-middleweight champion Erislandy Lara and James Kirkland.

Angulo will return to the ring August 27 at Honda Center when he fights Freddy Hernandez (33-8) on the undercard of a boxing card headlined by former two-division champion Robert Guerrero.

The Spike TV-televised card will be preceded at Honda Center a night earlier by a Bellator mixed martial arts card headlined by a lightweight bout between former UFC champion Benson Henderson and Patricio “Pitbull” Freire.

“To give up your belt rather than fight for it? Why? I’m going to fight for it,” Angulo said in Spanish. “To say [Alvarez] didn’t care about fighting Triple-G, then give up the belt?

“For the Mexican people, it’s been demonstrated you win them by giving your heart in the ring -- by fighting in the ring. You don’t care what opponent is in front. If you fight and lose, that’s OK. But you lose it by handing it over … ?”

Angulo didn’t finish the sentence. He merely gave an expression of being flabbergasted, sticking his tongue out between his lips and blowing air to make an audible snubbing sound.