By Jim Dower: Unbeaten light middleweight contender James Kirkland (24-0, 21 KOs) is poised for a title challenge at some point in 2009, and an excellent bet at picking up one of the belts. Currently ranked #2 in the WBA, #3 in the IBF, #4 in the WBO, and #8 in the WBC, Kirkland has a number of chances to challenge against different title holders in the new year. Kirkland, 24, trained by former female boxing champion Ann Wolfe, has speed and power reminiscent of Mike Tyson, only in a smaller package.
A one-time amateur star with an accumulated record of 134-12 as an amateur, Kirkland has excelled since turning professional in 2001, knocking out 21 of his 24 opponents and suffering zero defeats. Along with Alfredo Angulo, they are considered to be the best young prospects in the light middleweight division.
Brought a long a little faster than normal fighters, Kirkland has already faced capable opponents like Ossie Duran, Mohammad Said, Allen Conyers, Eromosele Albert, Ricardo Cortes and Brian Vera, knocking out all but the tough-chinned Duran. Kirkland’s power, aggressiveness and speed are extraordinary, making him a constant threat to end his fights by knockouts.
Indeed, it’s difficult for a fighter to get through the bout against him in one piece because of his heavy shots and constant pressure. He generally has one gear, forward, and stays on his opponents from the start to the finish of his bouts, never letting up on them with big shots.
If there’s one problem with his game, it’s his lack of defense and sometimes shaky chin. He’s easy to hit and has been dropped previously. Part of the problem is due to his aggressive style of fighting, but at the same time, his chin does seem to make him vulnerable in the future against other big sluggers like Angulo.
Although Kirkland has no fights scheduled at this time, one intriguing fight would be against Angulo, a former 2004 Olympian for the Mexican team, who is also ranked highly in the light middleweight division. Angulo’s style is similar to Antonio Margarito, the WBA welterweight champion, a fighter that Angulo spars with regularly.
In his last fight, Kirkland stopped former ESPN2 star of ”The Contender” Brian Vera (16-2, 10 KOs) in the 8th round on November 22nd. All total, Kirkland knocked Vera down three times in the fight, twice in the 2nd and once in the 8th, before the fight was finally stopped in the 8th as Kirkland pummeled a badly beaten Vera up against the ropes.
Vera, 26, has previously stopped the promising Irish middleweight prospect Andy Lee in the 7th round eight months earlier in March 2008, showing an incredible ability to take punishment while at the same time unveiling a powerful right hand. Vera, sure enough, took a ton of shots from Kirkland for the eight rounds, firing back at times with hard right hands that Kirkland took without much problems.
However, it was soon clear that Vera didn’t have the offense to match Kirkland and was out of his league in this one. After a fairly close 1st round, Kirkland took control over the fight, knocking Vera down twice in the 2nd with powerful rights to the head.
From there, it was a case of Kirkland using Vera as a punching bag, blasting him with big shots while taking an occasional hard combination from Vera in return until the end of the fight in the 8th round.
If all goes well for him, Kirkland should be getting a shot at a title sometime in 2009, and may end up a champion by the end of the year. So far, he’s faced few fighters with anywhere close to the boxing skills of champions Daniel Santos, Sergio Martinez, Vernon Forrest, Paul Williams or Sergeii Dzinziruk, so it will be interesting to see if he’s up to the task when he does get a chance against one of them.
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