Kirkland moved to #6 in Ring Rankings

By Boxing News - 11/08/2011 - Comments

Image: Kirkland moved to #6 in Ring RankingsBy Jason Kim: With his impressive 6th round beat down of Alfredo Angulo last weekend, James Kirkland (30-1, 27 KO’s) has been given a small push up to the number #6 spot in the Ring rankings. Kirkland, 27, is still ranked below the following fighters in the junior middleweight division: #5 Carlos Molina, #4 Eridlandy Lara, #3 Vanes Martirosyan, #2 Saul Alvarez and #1 Miguel Cotto. I think those guys are good, but I see Kirkland as better all of them with the exception of Alvarez.

Kirkland would be allover the likes Cotto, Martirosyan, Molina and Lara. It would be brutal and short if he were to be matched against any of those guys. But with that said, I still see Nobuhiro Ishida beating him if they were to fight again. Kirkland was stopped in the 1st round by Ishida earlier this year in a three knockdown fight last April. Kirkland, 5’9″, couldn’t handle Ishida’s 6’1″ height and his speed advantage. Ishida was just too big, and too fast for Kirkland. The shots came in much too fast for Kirkland to deal with. He tried but he just couldn’t stop the incoming for Ishida.

It would be a great fight if Golden Boy Promotions were to match Kirkland back up with Ishida but I doubt they will. Right now, Kirkland is riding high off his win over Angulo and they won’t want to mess things up by putting Kirkland in against someone that is a bad style match-up for him. Kirkland is better off facing slow guys like Molina. He does well against the slower guys, but you put him in with a tall, fast guy like Ishida, and Kirkland will struggle every time out. I think Ishida is Kirkland’s superior.



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