Last night James Kirkland did something many of us felt he could not do and that is beat Alfred Angulo. In a performance that made many of us remember why boxing is the best sport on the planet; Kirkland and Angulo traded with little regard for each other. It was a fight that reminded us what boxing after dark is all about. The first round was memorable to say the least as Angulo badly hurt Kirkland as he would get dropped by a hard right hand. From there Angulo provided a lot of pressure only to get dropped himself in the same round. The next 5 rounds they traded with Kirkland being the more active puncher by pressuring Angulo. Angulo would tire noticeably possibly from punching himself out from the first round. He was not the same after the first as Kirkland would get the victory.
It was not so long ago that Kirkland had lost it all. Two years ago he was the talk of the boxing world as he fought like someone who had somewhere else to be and was in a hurry to get out of the ring. The bell would ring and Kirkland would come racing across the ring throwing bombs immediately. He captured the imagination reminiscent of a young Mike Tyson. He was undefeated as was Angulo at the time and it looked like the two would meet. Then he would be incarcerated for two years for a weapons charge and it seemed like another tragic boxing story of wasted talent. When he returned to the boxing ring he fought tomato cans under a different trainer and when he ran into journeyman Nobuhiro Ishiida (23-6-2) who only had 7 career knockouts he was stopped in the first round. The stories of Kirkland having a glass jaw and never being as good as we thought he was would surface.
The journey to finding oneself is a lifelong journey. In the case of James Kirkland after his loss he knew what he had to do. Go back to Anne Wolf. Wolf and Kirkland split after Kirkland felt that she did not support him when he was incarcerated. So when he returned to Wolf he knew he had to start from scratch. Anne Wolf has some of the most brutal training techniques in the boxing world. From sparring every day when typically you spar a few times a week to sparring against two people at a time. Running in the Texas heat 14 miles. Hitting a punching bag while running. Carrying boulders while getting gang tackled. These are the techniques that make fighters champions before they ever step into a ring to face their opponent because they survived training camp. Fatigue makes cowards of us all and Wolfe makes sure that her fighters are prepared.
The story of James Kirkland is a story of getting a second chance and how that story is written is entirely up to Kirkland. On Saturday night, James Kirkland became a contender in the middleweight division.
