By Dan Ambrose: James Kirkland (30-1, 27 KO’s) badly exposed number #1 ranked WBC junior middleweight contender Alfredo Angulo (20-1, 17 KO’s) on Saturday night, knocking him down and giving him a tremendous beating en route to winning by a 6th round stoppage at the Centro de Cancun, in Cancun, Mexico.

Kirkland, 27, had to get up off the deck in the 1st round, however, after walking into a straight hand from Angulo. Kirkland got up and was able to weather the storm for the next minute with Angulo unloading everything but the kitchen sink on him.

Instead of fighting patiently and picking his spots, Angulo punched himself out in the process of trying to get Kirkland out of there. Once Angulo had exhausted himself, it was Kirkland’s time to take over and take over he did.

Kirkland unloaded a flurry of power shots, hurting Angulo with a vicious right hand and then putting im down with a left-right combination. Angulo really never recovered from the knockdown and gassing himself out, as in the subsequent rounds, Angulo looked painfully slow, tired and still hurt from the knockdown.

Kirkland completely took over the fight from the 2nd round on and made a mess of Angulo’s face with a never ending stream of power shots. Angulo not only couldn’t handle the speed of Kirkland, but he was also no match for Kirkland’s tremendous work rate either. At one time a couple of years ago, Angulo was a fighter able to throw 100 punches per round. He really could have used a high work rate last night, as Kirkland buried Angulo with his high punch volume, and Angulo was either too tired or too slow to keep up with the pace.

Kirkland hurt Angulo again in the 2nd round with a hard left hand and poured it on. Angulo still looked completely exhausted and did little more than just take head shots. His face quickly turned into a swollen and bloody mess from the hard shots from Kirkland.

In the 3rd, Angulo landed a couple of big punches but for the most part he was just absorbing a massive amount of big shots to the head and to the body. The difference between the hand speed of Angulo and Kirkland was fairly dramatic. Angulo looked as if he was fighting underwater with no speed at all. I can’t remember seeing a top contender as slow as Angulo in all my years. He’s never been fast to begin with, but his lack of hand speed has been partially masked by the fact that his opposition are usually running from him and not standing and making a fight of it. Angulo has never been forced to fight hard because he’s had guys running or collapsing after a round or two of getting hit with big shots. Kirkland not only stood his ground, he constantly fired on Angulo and forced him to fight a lot harder than he’s been accustomed to in the past.

By the 5th round, the fight was ugly to watch because of how badly beaten Angulo was and how one-sided the fight had become. Angulo’s face was just red from the shots he’d taken and blood dripping from his swollen nose.

Finally in the 6th round, the referee stepped in and halted the fight with Angulo taking tremendous punishment against the ropes from Kirkland.

This was a devastating loss for Angulo because of the punishment he absorbed in the fight. Hopefully, he can emerge from this loss without any lasting effects because he took way too many head shots. The fight arguably could have been stopped in the 4th and I doubt there would have been too many complaints.

With this win, Kirkland, ranked #15 by the WBC, will get a big upwards push in the rankings. However, the chances are remote that the WBC champion Saul Alvarez will be allowed to fight him. Golden Boy Promotions, the promoters for Alvarez, likely won’t want any part of matching Alvarez against a fighter like Kirkland. I think Kirkland would beat Alvarez, although I think Alvarez would do a lot better than Angulo did.

In other action on the card:

Peter Quillin TKO 6 Craig McEwan