Heavy-hitting middleweight favorite James “Mandingo Warrior” Kirkland returned from a four-year layoff with a quick win on Saturday night at the Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. Kirkland (33-2, 29 KOs) dropped overmatched Colby Courter (13-15, 10 KOs) three times while registering a first round knockout. It was Kirkland’s first fight since his KO defeat to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in May 2015.
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Repeat offenders will be put on moderation.
I don’t understand Kirkland: this was his second fight since 2013. What does he try to accomplish by being away from boxing for so many years and then make a comeback at age 35?
Aside of that, what’s a win worth against a fighter rated #346 in his division?
I hope Kirkland will fight at least a top 20 next to find out whether he can still mix it up with top 10 fighters in his division or not.
Well the think is in the past his period of inactivity is because of his legal troubles. Hopefully this wasn’t the case but those things are only hurting him. Did he have Anne wolf? Because it seems like Anne is the only one that could get the fire in him going.
Yes, he’s back with Anne Wolfe, which always worked well for him. Let’s see how far he can go – he definitely has heavy hands.
4 years off. Some fighters lose a big fight, and let their careers go. Kirkland reminds me of Clottey, and Quartey. Took a lot of time off when they were right in the middle of possibly getting all kinds of big money fights.
I find it funny, that a lot of people ask is he with Ann Wolfe. I remember kellerman talking about that when he was fighting canelo, like if having Ann Wolfe would shield his chin or some how give him super powers to defeat canelo. I think that’s all BS, Kirkland was what he was and it didnt matter if ann wolfe was in his corner or not. Trainers cant fight the fight for you. Kirkland was getting beat by another guy named Carlos Molina (with Ann Wolfe in his corner) he was lucky Molina didnt have the knockout pop.
It’s too soon for a top 20 opponent, they guy was off 4 years, and who knows what he was up to during that time, from what we now of Kirkland it’s unlikely the majority of that time was spent on physical or mental self improvement … if he can get 2 more rust-shaking & conditioning fights before the end of the year he can then try a top-20 fighter in February or March assuming he keeps his shit together the whole time…
I get what you are saying, but Kirkland will get hardly any cash fighting bums and he doesn’t have much boxing time left anymore at this age. I still think he should fight a top 20 next, even if its just to find out whether still has the potential to make it to the top or not. If there’s no potential to do that, what’s the point of the comeback? Why spend a lot of time and money to fight bums? It will cost him more money than he will get from these kind of fights.