James Kirkland will likely return on July 30 in a rematch with Nobuhiro Ishida

i heard kenny adams wasn't able to give kirkland enough 1 on 1 time because of his health problems, kirkland needs to get his ass over to freddie roach or robert garcia asap.

 

Possibly. I don't really know how big he is at home (or more importantly, was before his recent big breakout), or how many times he was televised or recorded in Japan.

 

Joel Julio is a very solid B+ fighter and always dangerous...but at the same time always vulnerable to guys that are as capable and unafraid of dishing it out as him.

 

Progress naturally and bring his weight down naturally, I think he's been cutting out on fluids and thus lost some if not all of his punch resistence. He's gonna have to drink like a normal hard working athlete again and work his weight down at a natural pace.

Last thing we heard of him was him getting out of prison in his 195-200lbs' and then all of a sudden he's a middleweight on the weigh in and bigger than a LHW on the night of the fight?

Is Kirkland in need of money or why is he in such a hurry?

3 months probably won't be enough, expect Kirkland to get tagged and have his legs turn to jelly again, he might come out with a win but I fully expect him to get staggered again.

 

Julio had power and skills. He did KO K9, and outbox Ishe Smith.

He just isn't enough of a puncher to bang freely with truly big punchers (like Kirkland and Angulo)...nor is he a good enough boxer to hang with the really technically polished (like Dzinziruk and Quintana).

He's kind of stuck in this in-between spot, where he can clean out the third-tier and lower but will lose to pretty much any style at or near the top.

 

Japanese title fights, OPBF fight, and ofcourse World titles fights are very popular in Japan.

Seeing he's fought for a japanese belt 3 times I'd be surprised he havent been televised before. Ofcourse he's a pretty big man.. dont know how popular the middleweights are in Japan.

 

This is a great rematch and I hope Ishida gets a much bigger purse.

 

Right, that's what makes me wonder. Koji Sato fought last week (originally it was supposed to be a defense of his Oriental Pacific Middleweight title, but he didn't make weight and the opponent got changed as a result) and that was not televised in Japan. :think

I can't imagine Ishida was any bigger a domestic name than Sato before this year.

 

This would make an interesting Case Study for sure. I knew his Chin was "shaky" but did not think in a million years it was as bad as he showed in his last fight. It was a legit KO though it wasn't a fluke.

 

If I was James Kirklands trainer I would advise him not to get into the ring before September. And I'd spend May-July on just keeping him hydrated whilst in training mode, and have him work his way down at a feasible pace to 165-170 so he can easily shed the extra few lbs to make 160lbs in September/October.

And on top of it I'd focus some on his legs and reflexes, and more importantly some defense.

 

:deal :good