By Eric Thomas: Undefeated light middleweight contender James Kirkland (25-0, 22 KO’s) was sentenced earlier today to two years in prison, according to ESPN. On Wednesday, the 25-year-old Kirkland given two years due to an arrest that occurred in July in which Kirkland, a convicted felon, was caught with a firearm in his possession.

The good news, if there is any, is that Kirkland has already served six months of the prison time because he’s been in jail since April and with possible time off for good behavior, Kirkland could be out of prison by next year, possibly in June.

Kirkland could have received a longer sentence, as long as four and half years, but the judge gave Kirkland a break after seeing lot of support for Kirkland from the public.

Kirkland hasn’t fought since March, stopping Joel Julio in a 6th round TKO. Before that, Kirkland had dominated Brian Vera, taking him out in the 8th round in November 2008. The timing of Kirkland’s arrest for gun violations couldn’t have come at a worse time for him, because it wiped out a potential title shot against one of the light middleweight champions. The way that Kirkland was fighting at the time, it was almost a sure thing that he would win a title against one of the champions.

Hopefully, Kirkland stays in shape while in prison and doesn’t put on a ton of weight that would slow down his come back when he emerges next year. Kirkland will be coming out of prison still a young fighter at only 26, and capable of still making a name for himself if he can hit the ground running and pick up training again next year.

Kirkland is a Tyson-like fighter with fast hand speed, power and relentless pressure. He’s a nightmare for any fighter because of the combination of power, pressure and speed. He doesn’t give his opponents much space to work and because of his pressure, he’s hard to deal with it. If has 90% of his abilities still intact after gets out of prison next year, Kirkland is still good enough to capture a title or two in the light middleweight division. The real question is whether he’ll be able to get back down to light middleweight after the layoff. He was reported to have ballooned up to 190 after his arrest and that’s an area of concern for me.

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Flores looking to fight Huck or Fragomeni

Unbeaten cruiserweight contender BJ Flores (24-0-1, 15 KO’s) is going after to cruiserweight champions Marco Huck and Giacobbe Fragomeni in his next fight. Flores, 30, has taken a lot of heat for facing mostly soft opposition since turning pro six years ago in 2003, is finally stepping it up by going after World Boxing Council champion Fragomeni and WBA cruiserweight champion Huck.

Flores recently stopped the hard punching Epifanio Mendoza by a 4th round stoppage in August. The win proved that Flores has power and that he can bang with a hard puncher. Flores has taken criticism for running in the later rounds of his fight against Darnell Wilson last year in February.

Flores won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision but failed to impress boxing fans with his performance. Since that bout, Flores has become a more fan friendly fighter by showing that he’s not afraid to mix it up with his opponents. Flores defeated another hard punching fighter in Jose Luis Herrera by a 10 round decision in March. Flores dominated Herrera, winning almost every round of the fight.

Flores doesn’t care if he has to travel to Germany or Italy to fight in Huck or Fragomeni’s back yard, as he’s confident that he’ll be able to beat them. Flores is also interested in fighting Ola Afolabi, the interim WBO cruiserweight champion.