James Kirkland was once being touted as the next serious contender for the middleweight crown. With his youth and punching power, he was a bright prospect that many thought could break into the pound-for-pound rankings.
He was cruising rather easily through the division, scoring victories over noted middleweights Brian Vera and Joel Julio back to back. Then, in April 2009, he was arrested and sentenced to 24 months in prison on a felony firearm possession charge. When he returned to the ring in March of this year, he was eager to take on fights.
He had two fights in 13 days, scoring a first-round knockout, then a second-round knockout. With those being short work, he took another quick fight, just a 21-day turnaround, to face Nobuhiro Ishida. In what was supposed to be another "stay busy" fight, as HBO analyst Max Kellerman called it, Kirkland was knocked down three times in the first round and the ref called the fight to halt. Some, including Kirkland, felt the stoppage was premature. Either way, Ishida had scored one of the biggest upsets of the year.
Following that defeat, Kirkland, now fighting at light middleweight, reunited with former trainer Ann Wolfe, noted for being one of the toughest trainers around. He rebounded from the loss to knock out Dennis Sharpe in just one round before scoring a second-round TKO victory over Alexis Hioros.
Saturday night, he aims to show he is really back, as he faces a tough opponent in Mexico's Alfredo Angulo, Kirkland's first time on HBO (9:45 p.m. ET) since the Ishida bout.
"For this fight, we've had a very vicious, hard training camp," he said. "I know training camp was harder than this fight's going to be. We're more than prepared for this fight. I'm in the best shape of my life. I have the best speed, snap on my punches and my movement and my timing. It's all there."
Putting the loss behind him and pushing himself through a grueling camp has not been easy, but the person who has been making it so hard on him, his trainer, has also made dealing with it all of it that much easier.
"She has been more than just a blessing to me," Kirkland said of Wolfe. "She's been there spiritually, mentally, helping me through all the odds. When I felt like I couldn't push it any further, she was there to say, 'Are you ready to quit?' We have that competitive mind frame as far as training and never will I say 'quit' or 'give' and I'm blessed to have her in my corner and we're looking forward to getting closer to that title shot."
Angulo is a hard puncher with 17 knockouts in 21 fights. Kirkland is similar, scoring 24 knockouts in his 28 fights. Their action-packed styles has this set up to be one of the most exciting fights of the year, and Kirkland promises his fans that he will put on a show.
"They can expect a totally different fighter from the Ishida fight, a totally different fighter from any fight that I've fought. It's a contact sport and it's going to be a contact fight. Everybody wants to see that old-school, fight of the year, fight of century and I know it's going to be one of those types of fights."
Most of all, he assures that James Kirkland has worked too hard this time around to give up his title shot.
"It's going to be one of those fights where you're going to say, 'Kirkland is back.' "
