Angulo-Martirosyan apparently off

Junior middleweight contenders Alfredo Angulo and southpaw Erislandy Lara are without opponents for a planned show on HBO from Mexico, after targeted rival Vanes Martirosyan turned down an offer to face Angulo, Golden Boy Promotion matchmaker Eric Gomez told RingTV.com on Thursday.

The night of 154-pound standouts was to take place on Nov. 5, but Gomez still is looking for opponents.

The 29-year-old Angulo (20-1, 17 knockouts), who has scored five straight knockout victories since losing a unanimous decision to Kermit Cintron (33-4-1, 28 KOs) in May of 2009, is coming off last month's first-round KO of Joseph Gomez.

Promoted by Top Rank Inc., the 25-year-old Martirosyan improved to 30-0 by scoring his 19th knockout in the seventh round against Saul Roman in June.

Since it is was an eliminator for the right to be the WBC's No. 1 contender, the winner of Angulo-Martirosyan would have been in line to meet 21-year-old titleholder Saul Alvarez (37-0-1, 27 KOs), who must first get beyond a defense against Alfonso Gomez (23-4-1, 12 KOs) on Sept. 17 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The 28-year-old Lara (15-1-1, 10 knockouts) is coming off of a disputed, controversial majority decision loss to three-time titlist Paul Williams (40-2, 27 KOs) in July on HBO that most ringsiders thought he had won.

Lara had been considered for a clash of southpaws opposite WBO titleholder Sergei Dzinziruk (37-1, 23 KOs), hard-hitting James Kirkland (29-1, 26 KOs) or potentially southpaw WBA "regular" beltholder Austin Trout (23-0, 13 KOs).

But it appears that none of those fights will come to fruition, and that Gomez still is looking for an opponent for Lara.

Alvarez-Gomez is part of an HBO Pay Per View televised, split-site double-header whose main event features  Victor Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KOs) defending his WBC welterweight belt opposite Floyd Mayweather Jr. (41-0, 25 KOs) from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Lem Satterfield can be reached at lem.satterfield@gmail.com