By Dan Ambrose: Steve Carl from Las Vegas Review Journal is reporting that negotiations for a September 15th fight between WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KO’s) and #4 WBC James Kirkland (31-1, 27 KO’s) is moving forward rapidly and could be complete by tonight or tomorrow.
Carp said on his twitter “Just talked to Kirkland’s manager Cameron Dunkin. Fight with Canelo for 9/15 not a done deal yet, but they’re close. Maybe tonight it gets done. Wednesday at the latest but it sure looks like it will happen. It’s a shame that it had to happen this way but don’t blame Kirkland for accepting.”
Kirkland is being brought in to replace the badly injured Paul Williams, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a terrible motorcycle accident last Sunday in Georgia. Rather than cancelling the card and losing a lot of money, Golden Boy Promotions, the promoters for the 21-year-old Alvarez, are looking to salvage the card by getting Kirkland to come in to replace Williams.
Kirkland is coming off of shoulder surgery to repair a problem in his right shoulder that he injured in his disqualification win over Carlos Molina last March. It was a poor performance from Kirkland, as he showed that he has limited skills on the inside. He also looked very slow against Molina, and that was something that was pointed out by trainer Emanuel Steward.
Kirkland looked bulky, like he’d added too much muscle from his last performance before that against Alfredo Angulo in November of last year. Kirkland looked fast in that fight and appeared to be in great shape. What happened between then and the Molina fight is a mystery. Kirkland needs to trim some of the excess muscle off and go for speed instead.
Alvarez is coming off of a win over Shane Mosley earlier this month. Alvarez fought reasonably well but appeared bothered by Mosley’s pressure.
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