By Matt Stein: Former junior middleweight contender James Kirkland (25-0, 22 KO’s) will be getting released early from prison next month on September 17th instead of the original release date of October 2nd, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. This is going to please a lot of boxing fans of Kirkland, as he was poised for a shot at one of the junior middleweight titles a year ago when he was arrested in Austin, Texas a year ago after a gun was found in his vehicle. Having a gun in his car wouldn’t have been such a big deal had Kirkland not already served time in the past for armed robbery.

Now about to be released after serving a year, Kirkland reportedly weighs around 173, and only needs to lose less than 20 pounds to make the 154 pound junior middleweight limit. Kirkland, 26, will be released to a halfway house, which he will be staying in for the next six month. However, Kirkland will still be able to train and fight while staying in the halfway house. Kirkland’s promoters, Golden Boy Promotions, hopes to get Kirkland back in the ring by October and would like to have Kirkland fight at least twice before the end of the year.

At the time that Kirkland went to prison a year ago, he was considered by many fans to be the best fighter in the junior middleweight division. If he can get back in the shape that he was last year, Kirkland should be able to start in where he left off without any problems. He’s only 26, and still very young. One problem Kirkland may have is that some of the top fighters in the division will likely try to avoid fighting him. Although I’d like to think that Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto would like to fight Kirkland as soon as possible, I have my doubts that either of them will ever choose to fight a monster like him. If Pacquiao and Cotto opt to never fight Kirkland, then he’ll have to be satisfied in going after fighters like Alfredo Angulo, and Sergeii Dzinziruk to fight.

Kirkland’s last fight against Joel Julio in March 2009, a fight where Kirkland easily destroyed Julio in a 6th round stoppage. Before that, Kirkland defeated the hard-hitting Brian Vera by an 8th round stoppage in November 2008.