By Jim Dower: Undefeated junior middleweight contender James Kirkland (23-0, 20 KOs) took out Ricardo Cortes (22-3-1, 15 KOs) in the 2nd round of a scheduled 10-round bout on Friday night at the Music Hall, in Austin, Texas. Kirkland, 24, looking a little bulkier in the upper body and somewhat slower than in his previous fights, dropped Cortes in the 2nd round with a powerful right hand, and then accidentally added another right hand while he was down for good measure. Cortes got up off the canvas and courageously fought back while backed to the ropes, taking a couple of good shots from Kirkland then firing back with a good right hand of his own.
However, just at that moment, referee Gregorio Alvarez stepped in and halted the fight. Quite obviously, it was a bad stoppage leaving most everybody unsatisfied with the result, not least of which Cortes who looked like he still had some life left in him. The referee, though, was perhaps thinking that Cortes wasn’t going to be lasting too much longer. He was staggered twice in the 1st round, barely escaping without being knocked out, and then in the second round he was getting pummeled up until the knockdown. Cortes, a good fighter, seemed too slender and weak to compete with the bulky, powerful, Tyson-like Kirkland who was having his way with him in almost every second of the fight.
Kirkland, trained by Ann Wolfe, looked somewhat crude in the first round as he came out like a wild bull trying to knock Cortes’ head off. He failed to use his jab or any head movement as he threw wild shots with knockout intentions written all over them. Though he eventually succeeded in staggering Cortes twice in the round with first a right hand then a big left, he got hit an awful lot by the taller Cortes.
By the end of the round, Kirkland looked badly winded and out of breath, barely able to speak in his corner. He looked bulky and slower than he did in his past fights, possibly due to too much weight training, and it seemed to have no real benefits to his performance. A faster fighter or a more skilled one with boxing ability like Sergio Mora, would have probably carved up the crude-slugging Kirkland in the 1st round if given the chance. In the second round, Kirkland continued to throw mainly one punch at a time as he fought hard looking as if he were trying to take Cortes out with one big punch.
Leaving many openings for him and blocking zero punches, Cortes landed well with his right hand, hitting Kirkland repeatedly with it. However, Kirkland balanced things out when he hurt Cortes with a powerful left hand, and then knocked him down with a right to the head. While Cortes was down, however, Kirkland landed a late punch to the head of Cortes. It wasn’t a big shot but it was lucky for Kirkland that he wasn’t penalized or possibly disqualified for it.
Upon getting up, Cortes, now standing against the ropes, was met with a left uppercut and then another big left by Kirkland. Cortes fired back a perfect right hand to the head of Kirkland, but at that moment the referee Gregorio Alvarez jumped in and stopped the fight at 1:59 of the 2nd round.