The Destruction of Kirkland

The Destruction of Kirkland

By M.DeTyrone

“We all make choices, but in the end our choices makes us.” – Ken Levine

Kirkland a slugger with great potential twice in boxing didn’t make the right choice and on Saturday May 9, 2015 the boxing world witness the destruction of the slugger, James Kirkland in what was Canelo’s third fight in a middleweight division catchweight.

In my honest opinion, Kirkland had no business in a boxing ring with no defense, no chin, no trainer, and was inactive since his victory over Glenn Tapia in December of 2013. Yeah! A great performance of the Human Piñata Style, which is, hit me in the face and I’ll hit you back and let’s forget defense. The problem was that “Canelo” had better skills countered an extremely reckless Kirkland.

The blown up welterweights Josesito Lopez and Alfonzo Gomez had better rounds vs. “Canelo” than what we witness from Kirkland. In all honesty, I’ve see better boxing displayed in the streets fights and the UFC. It was a shameful display of slugger not in fighting shape and not at his full potential being set-up for failure. There are plenty people to blame but it all falls on Kirkland’s choices…

The boxing world understood and those boxing fans that understand the ins and outs of the sport identified very early on that without Anne Wolfe, Kirkland would suffer a KO defeat and a humiliating performance. It took the light puncher Nobuhiro Ishida to TKO Kirkland in one round without Anne Wolfe and it took Saul “Canelo” Alvarez 3 rounds. Everyone except Kirkland’s team understood that without Wolfe, he stood no chance, but that was the choice, which he made and was humiliated, and brutally Ko’d by another boxer with limited power.

Nevertheless, that seems to have been the strategy by Golden Boy Promotions, and team Canelo. In his biggest fight Kirkland, his advisor during the negations, which seems to have been Cotto’s advisor and his promoter the rapper 50 Cents at no point, realized that Anne Wolfe was necessary for the success of Kirkland or a better performance worthy of the hype.

From an earlier, posts about Kirkland vs. Canelo:

On paper, I would pick Kirkland to hurt or KO Canelo early and finish him within 6th rounds.

I could also see Canelo winning via KO after the 4th round…

 Kirkland must work Canelo’s body and impose his will on him by making it into a dogfight by not giving Canelo any space. The key is to avoid Canelo’s repetitive combinations and his right hand early in the fight. If Kirkland can work Canelo’s body early and take it past the 6th round… then Kirkland can punish Canelo and take him out.

Basically, this fight is going to come down to various elements among them will be which boxer will impose their will and power on the other, which boxer chin can endure the power of the other, and stamina.

Will Canelo’s stamina hold up to Kirkland’s onslaught past the 3rd round if goes past the 6th round it will be a miracle.

The biggest factor of the fight will be will if Anne Wolfe trains Kirkland. Again, without Anne Wolfe, in my opinion, Kirkland will not be the same and will be defeated.

All indicates and points to a Kirkland set up for an epic failure resulting in a “Canelo” looking like this elite boxer-puncher, and give his blind fans something to follow.

Without Anne Wolfe training Kirkland and an unknown trainer on his corner, and the long layoff of inactivity, the boxing fans expect a Kirkland defeat.

I expected that the referee would stop the fight at the sign of Kirkland being hurt, however I wasn’t wrong about this fight being a set-up fight to make “Canelo” look good as some elite boxer puncher. It was shameful and it’s shameful the boxing media promoting this fight as some redeeming fight for the hype they were culpable of creating the Pac Man “Threat” and fueling the anti-Floyd Jr. propaganda and anti-pure-boxers sentiment with the casual fans.

I give some credit to the HBO network with its 24/7 and commentators during the fight tried to warn everyone and explain what was going on with Kirkland and the consequences of not having a key element in his overall game. However, this is the boxing business an extremely shady where many boxers are exploited and used up for the satisfaction of casual fans, which seek entertainment in a sadistic manner, and they think it’s the Roman Gladiator games from some fictional movie.

The casual fans and the “Canelo” fans ate it all up, as I expected it to happen. On the social network boxing pages, and online boxing pages “Canelo” is now a vicious KO artist and will KO GGG if given the opportunity. The reality is that this was his first true KO since his KO victory over the 39-year-old once Jr. Welterweight Carlos Baldomir in 2010.

On a side note as for “Canelo” it’s already established that Lara & Mayweather Jr. have already laid down the blue print; control the distance, momentum, and timing. This will allow any boxer-puncher too methodically and systematically breakdown “Canelo” Alvarez with body shots and strategic combinations. Wait until the fifth and sixth round when “Canelo” Alvarez’ stamina begins to fade and at that precise moment when he begins to back pedal with his hands down towards the ropes. That’s when any boxer-puncher with power will capitalize. “Canelo” Alvarez is just force due to him being physically strong and has the same repetitive combinations power within the first fifth rounds; if a boxer controls that momentum with ring generalship then he’ll have a good chance to TKO or even KO Canelo.

That’s why “Canelo” will continue to fight pressure boxers or sluggers. You won’t see him versus Demetrius Andrade, Daniel Jacobs at middleweight or any true middleweight, Jermell Charlo, Jermall Charlo, or rematch Erislandy Lara. It’s very likely that he’ll fight the likes of Cornelius Bundrage.