By Dan Ambrose: #1 WBC, #2 WBA junior middleweight contender Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) feels confident that his team has put together the perfect game plan to defeat the rusty 2nd tier fighter James Kirkland (32-1, 28 KOs) in 18 days from now on May 9th at the Minute Maid Park, in Houston, Texas, USA.
Kirkland hasn’t fought since beating Glen Tapia in 2013. That’s a nice two year layoff. The casual fans have no clue about Kirkland being out of action for two years. Few casual fans are aware of that. A layoff like that will definitely give the 24-year-old Canelo a huge advantage in this fight.
Canelo says he has a great strategy to beat Kirkland. It’s pretty easy to predict it will be. You’ve got a fighter in Kirkland who hasn’t fought in two years, and he’s had to take off close to 50 pounds of blubber in slightly less than three months’ time.
It seems logical that Canelo will look to push a fast pace after the first four rounds go by to try and wear what will likely be a weight-drained and very rusty Kirkland down.
“We have the right strategy to beat James Kirkland,” Canelo said. “I have been sparring with southpaws to be prepared. Kirkland is a strong puncher, but I am also a strong fighter. On fight night I plan to hit hard but I also plan to fight an intelligent fight.”
The intelligent part will likely see Canelo avoiding Kirkland’s attacks in the first three to four rounds while he’s at his strongest, and then look to work over a quickly fading Kirkland from rounds five to twelve. Of course, if Kirkland doesn’t face or get knocked out early, Canelo is going to be in deep, deep trouble in this fight. He was hurt when Floyd Mayweather Jr. turned the heat on him in their fight in 2013, and Canelo was arguably beaten in his last fight by Erislandy Lara last July in winning a controversial decision over him.
“Kirkland’s style will complement mine, he is a fighter that likes to come forward and May 9 will bring a great fight for all the fans,” Canelo said.
It might be a good fight if Kirkland doesn’t gas out from having to take off so much weight. Like another one of Canelo’s opponents Alfredo Angulo, Kirkland is taking off a lot of weight in a short period of time. And like Angulo, he’s been out of the ring for a long time.
Canelo, 24, and Golden Boy Promotions have taken some criticism from hardcore boxing fans for picking out a fighter who hasn’t fought in almost two years, and who is no longer ranked in the top 15 by any of the world sanctioning bodies. If the Canelo-Kirkland fight had taken place four years ago when Kirkland was still fighting on a regular basis and was highly ranked, boxing fans would have loved the fight. But Kirkland has missed a lot of action, and only fought two times in the last four years. That’s pitiful.
To add to that, Kirkland put on a lot of weight in the last two years that he was out of the ring and he looked like he was scaling 200 pounds. Considering that he has to drain down to 155 to make the catch-weight for the fight, it’s a lot of weight to take off for a fighter or for anyone. Try taking off 45 pounds in three months and then get in the ring to have a professional fight. My guess is you’re going to be weak and far from 100%.
“I am very honored to have the first boxing event at Minute Maid Park, and I promise fans will not be disappointed. I train very hard to please all my fans,” Canelo said.
This is the second rusty fighter that Golden Boy Promotions has matched Canelo up against in his last three fights. At some point they’re going to need to start putting Canelo in with active guys like the Charlo brothers and Demetrius Andrade. You can’t keep dragging out of shape fighters into the ring to match against Canelo. Last December they were looking to match him against 35-year-old Joshua Clottey, a fighter who has only had three fights since getting beaten by Manny Pacquiao five years ago in 2010. Three fights for Clottey in five years and you wanted to match Canelo against him? It didn’t make sense.
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