Alfredo Angulo has tried to get under the skin of Erislandy Lara, his opponent Saturday at Home Depot Center, by insinuating that like many Cubans, Lara still has an amateur style that is not all that pleasing to fans.

“No, I’m a technical fighter,” said Lara, who defected from Cuba in 2008 after a failed attempt in 2007. “I’m a technical fighter and he’s a brawler, and we’ll see who has the longer career. But the Cuban fighters are the best technical fighters in the world.”

Lara, the 2005 amateur world champion at welterweight, is 17-1-2 with 11 knockouts. Angulo is 22-2 with 18 knockouts. Their junior middleweight fight will be televised by Showtime on the undercard of the welterweight main event between Marcos Maidana of Argentina and Josesito Lopez of Riverside.