By Jason Kim: If Golden Boy Promotions ends up using James Kirkland as the replacement opponent to face their up and coming star WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez for his next fight on September 15th on pay per view, Golden Boy might regret it if Kirkland’s recent surgically operated on right shoulder gets further injured in training for the fight.
Kirkland underwent surgery in late March to repair two small tears in his shoulder from his fight against Carlos Molina on March 24th. The shoulder will supposedly be ready soon, but we’re talking about a shoulder that was just operated on. When you’re talking about going into training and taking shots, it’s a risky proposition. Kirkland could very well further injure the shoulder and then have to pull out of the fight.
Right now, Golden Boy has the time to look around and get a quality replacement to take the spot that was previously held by Paul Williams. But Kirkland uses up time in training for the fight and then re-injures his shoulder, there not be enough time to replace him.
It wouldn’t be an issue if this weren’t a PPV card with the Kirkland-Alvarez fight head-lining the card. This is why it might be safer for Golden Boy to find someone who isn’t just coming of serious shoulder surgery.
Kirkland is the favorite to get the Alvarez fight and it should be done in the next 24 hours. Hopefully Golden Boy doesn’t end up sorry for their pick if Kirkland’s banged up shoulder is further injured. The problem for Golden Boy is Alvarez is good but beatable. If they put him in with a really high quality junior middleweight contender he’ll likely get beat. This is why it’s got to be someone flawed enough like Kirkland for Alvarez to have a good chance of winning the fight.
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