By Chris Williams: They say that James Kirkland (27-1, 24 KO’s) got knocked down four times against Nobuhiro Ishida (23-6-2, 8 KO’s) last Saturday night – three times by Ishida and once by referee Joe Cortez when he tackled Kirkland as he was trying to get back up after his third trip to the canvas.

There has been differing opinions on whether Cortez should have halted the fight there and then after Kirkland couldn’t stay on his feet against the fast punching Ishida. Some boxing fans felt that Cortez stopped the fight too quickly, and that Kirkland would have weathered the 1st round storm from Ishida to come back in the next round.

Kirkland has proven in the past that he can get up off the deck and still win. He was knocked down quite so many times like he was against Ishida, though. Did Cortez mess Kirkland’s chances of coming back up by keeping him down after the last knockdown or was Kirkland doomed from that point to continue to be knocked down?

It’s hard to say really, because Kirkland didn’t look hurt and was still throwing punches with a lot of power. If you look at the fight in slow motion like I did, Kirkland was snapping Ishida’s head back with shots right up until the final knockdown.

All Kirkland needed was a little more time and he might have caught Ishida and ended matters. Cortez kept Kirkland from getting to his feet for some reason. As Kirkland pointed out later, there wasn’t a three knockdown rule in effect for the fight.

As such, Kirkland should have been able to get back up as many times as he wanted to try and win the fight. I guess we’ll never really know what Kirkland could have done because Cortez stopped the fight before Kirkland could prove who the better fighter was.