James Kirkland vs. Saul Alvarez @ 154

no shit, tex cobb.

 

Kirkland reminds me of Cobb. He has that dumb, face-first style, which in 2011, is just enough.:shadow:

 

Nah man. That can't be the only reason.

 

I think that Alvarez has just enough straightness in his shots to get off and hurt James. Kellerman is symptomatic of a broader disease which exists in sports, namely the desire and need to "rehabilitate" certain managers, coaches and athletes who are the pet favourites of the networks and the press.

Kirkland is a poor fighter who would have lost to Oscar, Winky, Shane, Vargas etc, at 154, this latest attempt to dismiss the Ishidia loss as some sort of a fluke is a bunkum, he has problems with tough, long armed guys who can tag him. Your chin doesn't go to mush because you did 150 push-ups per day instead of 200 push-ups per day. That's crap. You do not suffer from neurological deterioration by being incarcerated. Thats how you GET incarcerated, rather than what happens to you once you are.

It's not sour grapes either. I didn't lose money on it and I am not a fan of either Kirkland or Angulo. I went with Angulo off the basis of two fights- the Vera fight {no big, one-shot, fight-ending power} and the Ishida {poor chin, stylistic limitations} fight. What we should have gone off, as Reed suggested, was not JUST Kirklands recent fights but also Angulos recent lack of fights. Thats a lesson for everyone who picked Angulo but its also a lesson for whoever fights Kirkland next- be in shape, be active, keep your shit straight and don't rush it.

Kirkland has now been down 4 times in his last 4 fights. Its up to Alvarez how he wants to go about this, use the jab and drop a right hand in behind it, and its an easy fight. Get desperate and start rushing it, and it gets a lot harder.

 

Kirkland/Alvarez won't go more than 8 rounds max, imo.

 

What you think they call him Mandingo for nothin?

 

My dream fight would be to see Kirkland vs Berto at 154. James would beat that Hatian hack half to death.

 

I'd say Kirkland is a very winnable fight for Alvarez, who is a poor man's Cotto...if he keeps his head, he'd win most rounds, he has better technique and I'd guess he has the resilience

 

Kirkland is not cut out for the jab. He thinks he's Mike Tyson-Lite, but he's not, he doesn't have the head-speed or the foot-speed. STEP BACK, keep him out of range, and use the feint, the old amateur jab-feint-jab , if he bustles past the jab either step back again or meet him with an uppercut.

You can force him back by letting him come forward and timing him. Before too long he'll be getting discouraged by this and he'll be just stood still, "thinking",, Lesbi Ann Wolfe will shouting at him and annoying him, then it should be cinnamon gravy from that point on.

 

To be honest I think I'd slightly favour Kirkland.

The Ginger is a fraud imo, he couldn't even put a dent in Matthew Hatton, and he just doesn't look remotely impressive in any fight to me.

Early or not, I was surprised he managed to stop Gomez, and I thought Gomez was fighting on even terms at least, before the stoppage.

The ginger has a chance as he's certainly a more compact puncher, with better technique, possibly a TAD less hittable too, but honestly I think Kirkland would be too much for him. I'm also not sure the Ginger hits hard enough to get rid of Kirkland, and if he tries to hit him a LOT, he'll get hit a lot in return, and I don't think he likes getting hit much.

 

Sounds reasonable but i think you can easily make an argument for Canelo as well. Angulo is slow as hell and stood right in front of Kirkland the entire time. Alvarez doesn't have Perro's power but he's Roy Jones in the speed department compared to Angulo. He might be able to land 6 lighter punches to Angulo's one and more importantly not get hit as much in return.

Ginger couldn't put a dent in Hatton, but he probably has a better chin than James too.

 

Matthew Hatton is not as bad as people make out, he's a competent dude, nothing spectacular. Same for Ryan Rhodes, who is slick as the Mexican Gulf a Summer ago. Canelo was very very competent in that fight. He's a patient fighter with good technique.

 

That all sounds well and good. However, its still a question of how freckles will react when Kirkland lands on him. And Kirkland WILL land on him. Thats why I'd only make Ginger a slight favorite.

 

He's probably tough enough, but that said, Oscar does seem to attract quit-jobs and pussies.

 

Fucking is probably part of Kirkland's training regime. I bet ol' Wolfe has a theory about that one too. She probably lays in the ring spreads her legs and makes James go a few rds with her.

As for who wins, it won't happen now. I'd be really shocked to see them put Alvarez in with Kirkland. Alvarez has a pretty good following and G's has had enough upsets of late to take a chance like that with Alvarez.

Something I could see G doing is digging up the corpse of Shane Mosley and sticking him in with Alvarez.

 

Shane probably still whips Alvarez.

 

I doubt it. Shanes completely out of mustard.

 

Shane is shot to shit. He'd probably struggle with Pawel Wolak at this point.

 

Hell, Jin whips him at this point. Maybe even Shane's son.

 

Alvarez knocks Kirkland out.

 

This is a really tough one to predict for me. On paper I give the edge to Alvarez because he's the better skilled one here by far. On the other hand he gets hit too easily and might be a bit of a front runner. How badly he throttles Shitron should help offer up a better prediction.

 

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