Too early for what? Kirkland will never be ready for Angulo and the fight won't get more attention after Kirk has some losses on his rec.
I'm not that high on Angulo, but even before last night I would have picked Angulo to beat Kirkland. After seeing the bumfights scrap last night, Angulo would beat the fuck out of him, no doubt about it.
if it is too early for Angulo (whom i rate more than Kirkland, but not all that high on)....then why not Kirkland-Duddy?....that would be a fun one
Kirklan needs to be kept away from anyone who can keep his hands up, move his feet a bit without falling over himself....and now and then, throw an accurate counter. James would have been knocked out if that guy was in there last night.
HBO used to have some standards. I'm not sure a a guy of Kirkland's abilities should even be on HBO, at least not as a name fighter...certainly guys like Eromosele Albert and Brian Vera shouldn't. The fact that he's getting a push is pathetic. He should be one of those fighters you match tough, and if he happens to win you bring him back. I don't see a reason why the two sides come together at this point to make Angulo-Kirkland. And they've already started building up Chris Arreola.
I agree with everything you say here in its entireity. I was getting slammed across the place for voicing my displeasure of having to watch THAT fight on a WCB telecast; supposedly HBO's flagship boxing program. Just what kind of fan are they catering for here? DOes Joe Average really have a premium cable subscription and is he gonna be watching that and supporting the sport financially down the line?
About a year ago I'd have given Angulo a slight edge. Now if they fought I'd give him a huge edge. El Perro would stop Kirkland in the mid rounds. Kirkland is too defensively horrible to get by Angulo. Vera was able to tag him alot, and even shook him up once. Angulo will put him on his back, but at least it'd be a great action fight while it lasts.
Yeah, you know, I got a text from a friend during the fight who casually watches boxing and he was talking about how sloppy Vera looked. If there are any casual fans of the sport that still tune in once in a while to catch it on HBO or Showtime, I don't think Kirkland-Vera is something that's going to hold their interest or make them want come back again.
Duddy might be one of the few name guys that Kirkland can beat. Duddy is terrible. I doubt Fuddy Duddy woulda got past Vera.
i agree.....neither Duddy or Kirkland are gonna get close to the top....put them in together so one of them falls by the waste side ....i'm not sure who would win, Kirkland would be my pick but Duddy does have a win vs Howard Eastman....who despite being way off his best, is better than Brian Vera
well you can only build up people who are actually there... Are there any better talents that need to be shown instead? It's just the talent quality isn't there anymore to deliver the standard from a few years ago. Should they stop showing boxing?
Thats a ridiculous overstatement. There are literally bagillions of better qualitiy fights and fighters out there than this dick cheese.
Okay then who would you show that isn't being shown right now? With Kirkland you certainly have a point, but heavyweight prospects who else should HBO try to build up there? Oh and can you try not to ridiculously overreact. The only real STATEMENT i gave was the overall quality of fighters not being what it was a few years ago therefore the standards of fighters shown on a HBO broadcast aren't necessarily that high anymore -> someone like Kirkland makes it somehow now. What's so ridiculous about that? :dunno:
HBO's cards haven't been bad. THIS PARTICULAR FIGHT was utter shit and there's just no excuse for the push they're giving Kirkland. There are quality fighters out there, not named James Kirkland.
The point is, in that division alone, there's Sergio Martinez - who is more advanced - and Angulo and Kirkland...all of whom have fought on HBO this year in set ups. There's some other young fighters in the division...Duddy, Foreman, Greene, Lattimore. Not all are future world champions, but there's enough that you could put on a few BAD-type fights and build some names out of...and, if it's not too much to ask, maybe put on some entertaining fights (though that might be tough with Foreman).
Sure thing... and some of them have been shown... Duddy, Martinez... and most of them have handlers who think they shouldn't fight anybody who could beat them before they earned a decent buck... especially Duddy... So i guess that keeps HBO from matching them with each other.
That's the point. HBO apparently doesn't have the backbone to tell promoters and managers that if you want to have your prospect get the benefit of HBO air time, you're going to have to put them in with someone decent. Instead, undefeated prospects like Gamboa, Kirkland and Angulo are spoon fed wins on the network. What interest is there from the seemingly diminishing boxing public to watch non-competitive fights...especially when they involve unproven, untested prospects? Some prospects at least look like they're the goods in showcase fights. Kirkland can't even manage to do that. Why is he even on HBO if he's not going to fight somebody? Who wants to see that other than Golden Boy?
Maybe HBO thinks a name (no matter how big) is a name. Now that People heard Angulo and maybe seen him twice killing people in the first round, they stick with him until he loses - even if he's not looking that good.
Stick with him? You mean, when he's still fighting bums on their air a year from now...or in two, when he's fighting on ESPN because he couldn't cut it on a Championship Boxing level? How many viewers do you think Kirkland is bringing in right now? Do you think that will increase substantially if he continues fighting the Albert's and Vera's of the world? If HBO doesn't care about their viewing numbers - and right now it appears as though they don't - then they should continue doing what they're doing. At least they can make the promoters happy.
geesh...vera coming off of a ko defeat of a highly rated prospect...kirkland being mr. aim to please the viewers....it was a very okay fight to televise as the opening bout for an excellent main event on paper. HBO is a sanctioning body and a promoter and a con man all in one. They don't hide it very well. Kirkland is doing everything asked of him. Sure, he has room for improvement, but he doesn't suck.
I don't know that Lee was that highly rated. He was heavily hyped, but that's not the same thing. It shouldn't have taken that many viewings of him to see he wasn't what they said he was. Kirkland is a decent prospect, and him versus anybody is better than nothing, but he shouldn't be one of only a very select few that gets prime time HBO slots against opponents like Vera.
