By Adam Fillingham: Unbeaten Light middleweight contender James Kirkland has been arrested on a wepons charge. The 25 year old who is on probation for a 2003 armed robbery that cost him 2½ years of his career, was arrested during a traffic stop in his hometown of Austin, Texas, and booked Sunday afternoon. He was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.
This now means that he could miss his showdown on May 2nd against Michael Walker (19-1-2 12 kos) on the undercard of Ricky Hatton vs Manny Pacquiao.
“It appears that James is the victim of circumstance and we’re waiting for the facts to come in before we make any comment,” Cameron Dunkin, Kirkland’s co-manager, told ESPN.com
James Kirkland is an exciting prospect in the middleweight division and it will be a shame if this turns out to be true. Kirkland was all but linned up with a fight with WBO light Middleweight champion Sergiy Dzinziruk and it would be a shame for him if he was to miss it. This would be the biggest fight of his career by far.
While he does have a checkered past, he’s managed to stay out of trouble while focusing on his career. The bad part is that, since he’s still on probation, his punishment would be more severe if he’s convicted.
The Facts
This is a third-degree felony under Texas law, meaning 2 – 10 years in prison if convicted. Also, it’s come out that the gun was in his car, so there’s always the question of whether it was actually his. It’s a little harder to convict under those facts than if the gun was found on his person.
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