By Jason Kim: It’s been over a year since unbeaten junior middleweight James Kirkland (25-0, 22 KO’s) last fought. He’s been in prison in Austin, Texas for the past year serving time for a weapons violation. However, now that he’s out and scheduled to fight Delray Raines (18-8-1, 13 KO’s) on the undercard of the December 11th fight card with WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan defending against Marcos Maidana, Kirkland’s fight with Raines is going to be taking place in the low 160s.
Dan Rafael of ESPN reports that Kirkland’s new trainer and co-manager Cameron Duncan says that the Raines-Kirkland bout will take place in the “160s”. Kirkland will eventually get his weight back down to 154, but it looks like they’re going to take their time in getting him back down to that weight.
In prison, Kirkland’s weight went up to the 170s and that was with him exercising and staying in shape. For Kirkland to get back down to 154, he’s probably going to have to cut some muscle and trim down his physique so that he can make the 154 pound limit comfortably without signs of being weight drained.
At 5’9”, Kirkland doesn’t really have the size to fight in the middleweight or super middleweight divisions. He would be facing talker fighters and ones with excellent boxing skills like WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, Felix Sturm and Dmitriy Pirog.
Those guys aren’t the type of fighters that can be mowed down by a power puncher like Kirkland. It takes some skills and finesse to beat quality fighters like that. This is why Kirkland is much better off at junior middleweight. The added benefit for Kirkland at 154 is that he could in theory fight welterweights, if there were any of them willing to fight him.
Kirkland may soon find himself being dodged by the best welterweights and junior middleweights if he’s any good. Kirkland looked great a year ago before going to prison, but who knows what he’ll be like now after all this time.
Kirkland could have lost it or his body may have changed to the point where he can’t make 154 anymore. If that’s the case, I don’t see him being a huge star in the middleweight division. He’s too short, and doesn’t match up well with the skilled fighters at that weight.
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