You are the warrior who stopped Alfredo Angulo in one of the most exciting and courageous ring efforts ever witnessed?
?I don?t wish him any harm, and I wish he hadn?t gotten into trouble?He has to come to terms with himself. I hope he can live up to his potential.??Ann Wolfe
?Whether he ends up signing with 50 Cent or not, Kirkland needs to get back into the ring as soon as humanly possible. Time is definitely not on the side of the fighter once pegged for world domination.??Paul Magno (Yahoo)
The volatile junior middleweight contender has not been in the ring since March 24, 2012 when he won a highly controversial DQ over the torturously boring (but tricky) Carlos Molina. Towards the end of that fight, he finally woke up and showed signs of the old ?Mandingo Warrior? when his highly capable trainer Ann Wolfe urged him on with strong language and he responded in kind.
Since then, however, he has legally detached himself from just about every person who accompanied him on his rise to stardom, including Golden Boy Promotions which went out of its way to support James, trainer Wolfe who just might be the most honest person in boxing, and longtime mentor Pops Billingsley. This legal, contractual, and promotional wrangling has cost him even more prime career time. In the meantime, he has virtually fallen off the boxing landscape.
I won?t get into his already-vetted time lost due to incarceration because this is not about recriminations. What?s done is done. The thing is, he was once marked for superstardom and world domination but that was then and this is now and now time is fast running out.
Enter 50 Cent
But wait, this just in: According to an article by Ben Thompson on Fight Hype dated September 19, 2013, Kirkland recently met rapper-turned-boxing promoter 50 Cent in New York and reportedly signed a ?3-year deal? with SMS Promotions. According to an unidentified source, they are hoping to put him on HBO ?soon? without a tune-up. Thompson suggests that he even might become an opponent for Miguel Cotto if Cotto gets by Delvin Rodriguez. See: http://www.fighthype.com/news/article15232.html
Well, Cotto did get by Rodriguez with a crushing TKO and his team could now see Kirkland as the perfect opponent given both his time away from the ring and given his fan-attraction.
Adding substance to the 50 Cent hook up is the fact that a recent photo taken at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford shows Kirkland, 50 Cent, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Billy Dib, and other members of the rapper?s SMS Promotions boxing team posing together mid-ring prior to Dib?s less than scintillating Friday Night Fight against Mike Oliver. The photo was taken by ringside photographer, George Jimenez of GeoIMAGEZ.
Listen Up, James
?To see a man beaten not by a better opponent but by himself is a tragedy.??Cus D?Amato
?It?s so easy to take the easy way out. It?s so easy to lay down. It?s so hard to get up.??Bernard Hopkins
The ?Mandingo Warrior? (and many even believe his nickname is insensitive) needs to heed some no-nonsense advice as follows:
Hook up with a solid team like you once had; it?s essential to your success. Case in point: Tyson?s career began a descent after Cus.
You are now a promotional free agent. Sign up with a solid group and a solid adviser and stay the course, keeping in mind that 50 Cent is independently wealthy and can well afford to take a gamble on someone like you. Conversely, he can dump you like a bad habit if you revert to bizarre behavior or become unhinged, and if he does, there will be few, if any, options remaining for you.
A potential champion is hiding somewhere in there, James, but you need to allow it to emerge by making better choices; you have had opportunity after opportunity. Stupidity usually trumps talent. Leave your current environment of Austin, Texas and work on ridding yourself of any demons that might be lurking about. In this connection, avoid making off-the-wall claims that someone somehow forced you to take two black pills that sedated you prior to the Molina fight. No one buys that.
Avoid becoming another boxing ?what if?; another wasted talent. Learn from what happened to others like Reuben ?Ratman? Bell, Ike Ibeabuchi, Ricky Womack, Tony Ayala, and Mike ?The Bounty? Hunter.
Avoid biting the hand that feeds you. Oscar De La Hoya personally went out on a limb for at your sentencing a few years ago. Loyalty is a value. 50 Cent is not a boxing man and would react differently than Oscar.
Getting right back into the mix without at least one tune-up will be a bad mistake. Shed the rust safely. Skills don?t improve while remaining idle.
You were about to lay some serious damage on Molina late in that fight. You have won four in a row and are still an impact player. Many fans (including me) want to see you back in the ring. It?s time to take an inventory on your positives. Remember, you are the boxer who rampaged through the 154 lb. division prior to your incarceration. You are the warrior who stopped Alfredo Angulo in one of the most exciting and courageous ring efforts ever witnessed.
Sometimes getting to the sunshine can be a lifelong trek; some make it, others don?t. Some don?t even realize it when they get there.
Many remain in your corner and like one of your tweets said, ?The future looks good!?
Make that come true.
