Michael Angeletti is balancing two careers – as a professional bantamweight and as a real estate agent.
He will fight Geraldo Valdez in the co-feature of Wednesday Night Fights, live on the ProBox TV app from the ProBox TV Events Center in Plant City, Florida. The bout marks Angeletti’s first over 10 rounds as a professional.
Angeletti (11-0, 7 KOs), 28, was drawn to real estate after observing his teammate’s father – a broker, who always dressed sharply and carried himself with confidence.
“I couldn’t help but ask what the man did for a living,” Angeletti said.
When the Spring, Texas native learned that that man was a real estate agent, he became intrigued – especially after hearing the advice that “someone’s always going to need a house”. The idea of a stable, well-paid career outside of boxing was compelling – particularly after the broker showed him his invoices, revealing significant monthly earnings.
“I know I can’t box forever, and so I definitely had to have something else,” Angeletti said. “I actually got my license while I was on Team USA. That process was pretty easy. It took me about six months to get it because I was locked in. I could have taken my test earlier, but I was doing a lot of traveling with the USA team. I was back and forth from other countries.”
When he’s not fighting, Angeletti works for a brokerage firm in the greater Houston area. He obtained his real estate license just before fully establishing himself in boxing. Standing 5’8”, Angeletti competed at the lightest weights as an amateur but moved up to bantamweight when he turned professional in December 2020. Fighting in those weight classes has presented challenges, but not those that might first be expected.
“I guess it’s the weight class that I’m at – getting certain fights and having people accept a fight with me, it’s been kind of hard,” he said. “A lot of guys are pulling out, or they would get injured, and then I would have to wait another few months.”
Angeletti was originally set to face the one-time top-rated amateur Eros Correa, but Correa withdrew through injury – a recurring theme in Angeletti’s early career. He also fought the undefeated professional Jeremy Adorno – the younger brother of Joseph Adorno – on short notice in October 2022.
“I was just sharp,” Angeletti said. “I was in shape and just was able to take him out. He was actually overweight. We were supposed to fight at 122, then they sent another contract the week before, saying, can we come up to 124? I got to the weigh-ins right before we stepped on the scale. He was actually 126. They were like, can we come up? So they were playing a lot of games, but it didn’t really matter.”
Angeletti stopped Adorno in the sixth round and has since fought four times – thrice in fights scheduled over eight rounds. He remains active in real estate, closing deals when he’s not in training. However, once he has a fight date, his focus shifts entirely to boxing. Upon receiving the call to fight the 32-year-old Filipino Valdez(15-1, 11 KOs), Angeletti quickly switched gears.
“This is my first 10-round fight, so we’ve definitely been going a lot of rounds, more sprints, running, and conditioning,” Angeletti said. “Just more of everything.”
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