On the loss itself: "It bothered me to see James down like that. Me and him go way back and it was bigger than just This content is protected with us. Our backgrounds are similar and we both came up in Pops gym together. So on a personal level, I was really hurt to see James down like that." On the effects of the layoff: "That's just an excuse that people are using. James had to go away (to prison) for a minute when I was training him too, but when he got out he came right back and didn't miss a beat. It's not like James was getting beat up when he was away." On the quality of Kirkland's chin: "I can't really explain how a guy with only 7 KO's stopped James, but for people to all of a sudden say he doesn't have a chin is bull****. James walked thru much better puncher's than this last guy. Joel Julio could punch, but James walked right thru his shots. (Brian) Vera could punch and James walked thru his best **** too. Even (Mohammad) Said could punch pretty good, but he couldn't faze James either"................................................To her credit,Wolfe flat out refuse to get into whether Kirkland was better or worse with her at the helm,But it's obvious she's content with the results she got out of him.She's also still openly rooting for him,regardless of what role she does or doesn't play in the remainder of his career.
He was rocked in the first round of his fight before that too. Its obvious that he is defensively flawed and holds his hands too low, also his chin is past his right knee which it never should be, but beyond that I wonder if he is entering the ring too dry not warming up enough.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akW8GQ9fQek&feature=related[/ame] This is not the same fighter that was in the ring with Ishida. No excuses, just stating a fact. No one knows the exact reason why that is, but that doesn't change the situation. Hopefully he can come close to what he was, but things didn't look good.
James got caught cold. Fact. Ishida landed a right cross that James never saw coming and he was done after that. It's always the shots that you don't see that do the most damage and James simply had no recourse. Ishida continued to press him and throw combinations while James was still hurt from the 1st KD and that was all she wrote. That's what happened, plain and simple.
its widely reported James had trouble making weight and his performance was going down hill in sparing leading up to the fight. Which is sad for him not to be better watching his weight as he has no business above 154..
