I can almost guarantee that James will be working on controlling his aggression in this fight. Ann was pissed at the way he went buck wild on Cortes. Should go a few rounds but I don't see an upset.
I've got 2 memories of Vera, one of which was against Lee where Vera defiantly out gutted and out lasted his opponent. The other memory was against Codrigton on The Contender where he got KTFO. My instincts tells me that of my 2 memories of Vera, the latter will be the most likely outcome against the hard punching and all out aggressive Kirkland.
Of course, Codrington is a full two weight classes bigger... Is Vera coming down from 160 or is the fight at a catch weight?
Stopped Willie Gibbs in Ireland... not sure what else. Learning to tuck his chin would be a solid step.
brian vera i have seen 3 times and it's a strane couple of fights. vera vs samuel miller: miller who has not one straight punch in his arsenal is outboxing and beatign vera up. bad decision very bad. vera vs codrington: jaidon just sat in front of him and launched some nice clean precise hooks to which vera couldnt get tou the way of. vera vs lee: vera after taking a B-ting on another level. he starts to throw ritgh hands over the low left and right hands of lee. the guy doesnt know alot of punches and isnt a big puncher either just pesistant. if a guy like kirkland doesnt hurt him or drop him early without relative ease then it's gonna be a hard tough long fight. vera has a good chin but just cant keep his feet under him at times. i think kirland has enough stamina and enough tough fights to prepare him for this. key issue. lee and kirk are both lefty's, coincidence or a gameplan.
http://www.rte.ie/sport/other/audiovideo_index.html Scroll down this link till you find the one that says 'wins for Lee and McCloskey' There you can watch all of Lee's last fight where he put on a very good performance against Willie Gibbs. Or just highlights from [yt]yAO2aQWy770[/yt] [yt]byiOUEpc4WI[/yt]
These guys are both from Texas and have sparred before. According to Anne Wolf Kirkland, stopped him with a body shot in the 3rd round of sparring. Vera is going to get his ass handed to him in this fight.