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

They had a lot going on that weekend, just in combat sports alone.

Shinya Aoki had a big win in MMA (which is just as big there as boxing, if not bigger).

The Hasegawa/Aoh/Nishioka tripleheader probably dwarfed the Ishida-Kirkland upset in terms of impact and interest.

There were obviously people there waving Japanese flags in support and I'm sure anyone back home who was aware of it swelled up with national pride (although it was buried pretty deep on a PPV undercard). It was probably just a drop in the bucket overall, swallowed up by the other big events in the same 48 hours. Had the timing been different and it happened on a different week it may have gotten more ink. :conf

 

Well, I like the fact GBP are throwing him right back into the fire. His reputation took a hammering against Ishida and winning a re-match means he could write it off as a fluke, an off-night and it would go a long way in rebuilding him. A loss though, would be devastating for his career.

Time to see what he's made of.

 

Whoa now you mention it. What a weekend.

 

The only reason I can see they hurried this guy is to try and keep him out of trouble. Well now he got his ass kicked and its obvious he's not ready for the ring just yet. The guys saying September I agree with fully. This is a rough ass sport, even a year away for most guys will take some time to adjust, and he came out of prison 50 pounds over his fighting weight. One loss won't make or break you in this sport if you're exciting and an animal in the ring, we know that, so I say train the guy down, get him good sparring, to hell with Ishida and see ya in September at 154 back in shape, this guy is still young, he can get back, but feeding him 4 rounders every two weeks won't do it.

 

It's possible that, like Roy Jones, Kirkland's chin was affected by losing too much weight too quickly. Whether he can get that toughness back, I don't know, but it did seem like he needed lots of hard sparring sessions. He looked like a guy who'd never taken a shot in his life, which is odd because he did have a good chin at one point.

 

If this is true.

Kirkland should beat Ishida this time.

James Probably would take him more serious this time around and come with an actual gameplan.

But I see this as make or break for Kirklands career. Losing to Ishida again is NOT an option.

 

I like the fact that they're going for an instant rematch. But unless James can vastly improve his defense he will get beat again.

 

Either that, or complete lack of understanding. James Kirkland has to feel something is wrong, when his legs went he may not have been out of it, but his legs were gone, and thats just fact.

Either he is delusional, or he's ready to make the long hard road back. I think he's deluded myself.

 

Glasssssssss

 

it takes guts to face a guy who did that to you the first time, but not that smart for his corner people. I would fight someone else and work back to being confident and get some distance from the first fight. If he loses the rematch, his career is in a bit a shambles. He wins it is right back. It is the ultimate career risk I will say that. If he wins that sort of eliminates the memory of the first fight, he loses and he will never be able to get people to forget-unless after he loses he beats Manny Pacman and knocks him out. But he will not get that fight for a while if he gets stopped by Ishida.

 

I think he wins a re-match as well.. Something wasnt right with james when he got knocked out.. I see him bouncing back!

 

I'm still a fan of Kirkland even though he got whooped last time out......But I think Ishida just might be a bad style matchup for him. I wouldn't be surprised if he lost again.