By Dan Ambrose: Miguel Cotto has reportedly signed the contract to fight 32-year-old James Kirkland on February 25 at a catchweight of 153 pounds on HBO pay-per-view at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. Having Cotto-Kirkland on HBO PPV could result in very few buys. I’m not sure what Cotto and his promoters at Roc Nation Sports are expecting in terms of buys for the fight. It might be quite low. Cotto is big name, but this an awful fight. It might not even bring in 100,000 buys on HBO PPV. If they’re good with a low number of buys that the Cotto-Kirkland fight bring in, then it might not be bad to have it on PPV.
Cotto will be trained by Freddie Roach, who has turned his career around more or less since his back to back losses to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Austin Trout four years ago. Cotto could probably beat Kirkland even without a trainer. I don’t think Cotto needs Roach for him to beat an inactive guy like Kirkland.
Cotto’s choice of Kirkland as his opponent for February 25 makes the fight seem almost like an old timer’s fight from the past rather than one that has any real meaning in today’s boxing. I don’t know if Cotto realizes this or not. Choosing Kirkland would have made sense in 2009, but not in today’s sport.
It’s both disappointing and sad that Cotto would select someone who is no longer a top fighter in Kirkland to fight on HBO PPV rather than facing someone that is relevant like IBF 154lb champion Jermall Charlo. Cotto vs. Charlo on HBO PPV makes sense. Cotto vs. Kirkland is a bizarre move on Cotto’s part.
Cotto’s move to fight Kirkland is the equivalent of someone fighting a retired fighter, because Kirkland’s inactivity puts him out of the spotlight for long stretches of time in between his rare appearances in the ring. I know that boxing is prize fighting, but when you rarely fight like Kirkland does, it looks odd. Cotto would get more attention from the boxing world if he fought a good champion or contender at 154 like Demetrius Andrade, Jermall Charlo, Erislandy Lara or Julian Williams. The fans likely wouldn’t have minded too much if Cotto selected a top welterweight like Errol Spence Jr. for his next fight. I don’t think Cotto could beat any of those fighters now, but at least he would be showing a lot of courage in facing them.
Cotto, 36, will be getting a minimum of $10 million from his promoters at Roc Nation Sports for the fight, according to RingTV. It’s the final fight of Cotto’s four-fight contract with the promotional company. It’s unclear whether Roc Nation will re-sign the former four division world champion. Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) is expected to wrap up his boxing career in 2017. The reason why his match against Kirkland (32-2, 28 KOs) was put on HBO PPV rather than regular HBO was due to in part to the high $10 million guarantee that Cotto is getting from Roc Nation. Kirkland will have Ann Wolfe training him for the fight, which is good news to hear. Many of Kirkland’s successful fights during his career have come with Wolfe training him.
Kirkland will be getting his third highest purse of his career behind his fights against Saul Canelo Alvarez an Alfredo Angulo. Kirkland received $1.3 million for the Canelo fight in 2015, according to RingTV. That was a strange move by Canelo and Golden Boy to select Kirkland last year rather than having Canelo fight one of the top fighters at 154 like the Charlo brothers. Canelo did fight WBO 154lb champion Liam Smith in September of this year, but Smith wasn’t seen as anywhere near as talented as the Charlo brothers, Julian Williams, Erislandy Lara or Demetrius Andrade.
The 153lb catchweight for the fight might be something that Cotto wanted to gain an edge against Kirkland. By having him melt down an extra pound to 153, it’s might possible that it might weaken him. I don’t know if it’s really necessary though. Kirkland is clearly not the fighter he was in 2009 and before that. Kirkland isn’t an old fighter. He’s just a guy that for whatever reason has become an inactive guy over the years. It’s hard to understand why Kirkland has let that happen, because he could have made more of his career if he’d stayed busy and fought three times per year from 2012 to 2016. The fact is Kirkland hasn’t stayed busy, and he looked very rusty in losing to Saul Canelo Alvarez in his last fight.
It might have been better if Cotto had selected a better fighter than Kirkland. That’s the unusual move. It’s hard to know why they selected the 32-year-old Kirkland as the opponent, because he’s only fought three times in the last four years. Kirkland was stopped in his last fight by Saul Canelo Alvarez in 2015. Kirkland used to be a decent fighter, but he’s become a part time fighter in the last four years of his career.
Kirkland has an impressive ring record, but he’s never really beaten anyone of note other than Alfredo Angulo and Glen Tapia. Those are not major players in boxing right now. The southpaw Kirkland looked pretty big before starting training camp for the Canelo fight. If Kirkland has gotten that big since the Canelo fight, then he’s going to have to take off all the weight to get down to 153lbs to make weight for the fight.
The fact that Cotto chose Kirkland to fight rather than a top fighter from the 154 or 160lb divisions suggests that he might be making sure that he doesn’t mess up a potential rematch against Canelo in 2017. That’s the only logical reason I could see for Cotto to take on Kirkland, because the guy is no longer relevant in today’s boxing world. When you see talents like IBF junior middleweight champion Jermall Charlo knocking out previously undefeated #1 IBF Julian “J-Rock” Williams last Saturday night in the 5th round, and then see news of Cotto fighting Kirkland, it makes the fight look more like an old timer’s fight than one in which relevant fighters are facing each other.