By Dan Ambrose: Junior middleweight contender James Kirkland (31-1, 27 KO’s) got lucky last night in his fight against Carlos Molina (19-5-2, 6 KO’s) when referee Jon Schorle decided to play it strict and completely by the book in halting the fight and disqualifying Molina after one of his corner persons stepped into the ring while Schrole was administering a long 10 count after Molina had gotten from a push knockdown.

The time had already run out in the round, but the team member may have been not aware of the rule that the referee can still count after the round has ended. But instead of merely giving a warning, the referee decided to play it strict and disqualify Molina and thus the entire was ruined. Molina was ahead at the time of the stoppage and had he been able to get himself together in the 11th and 12th, he surely would have won the fight.

After the fight Kirkland expressed interest in facing Molina again to try and beat him without controversy. Molina said he’s interested in taking the fight. However, there’s talk that Kirkland will be instead directed to a title shot against IBF junior middleweight champion Cornelius Bundrage (31-4, 18 KO’s) next rather than tempting fate by facing Molina again and getting dominated once again the way Kirkland was getting handled for the first nine rounds of the fight.

Molina seemed to have Kirklnad’s number until tiring in the 10th and getting pushed to the canvas. The referee thought it was a legit knockdown but you can clearly see Molina getting pushed down by Kirkland. That’s really unfortunate because the chain of events led to Molina losing the fight. Had the referee ruled it a push down then there wouldn’t have been a needless count and Molina would have been able to fight for the remaining two rounds to try and hold onto his lead. Instead of that, Molina gets another loss on his record and it’s doubtful that Kirkland will now give him a rematch.