CANCUN, MEXICO — James Kirkland (30-1, 27 KOs) may not have answered all questions about his chin, but Saturday night he silenced all naysayers about his will to win by rising from a hard knockdown to mercilessly beat down and disfigure Alfredo Angulo (20-2, 17 KOs) to a 6th round TKO.
The fight delivered on its expected fireworks from the opening seconds, as Kirkland and Angulo met at ring center exchanging hard hooks. Angulo was the first to give ground. Pushed to his own corner, Angulo capitalized on Kirkland’s recklessness and lack of head movement with a flush straight right. Kirkland crashed to the canvas back-first as the Mexican crowd roared in approval. Kirkland quickly rose and was greeted with a fusillade of power shots.
The referee looked closely as Angulo crashed power shot after power shot into Kirkland, who sought refuge against the ropes. After roughly 30 seconds of non-stop haymakers, Angulo’s punches became wider, slower, and Kirkland returned fire and stunned him with a left cross. The Ann Wolfe protege followed up with a series of hooks that crumpled Angulo to the canvas. He also beat the count, but Angulo’s swelling face and bloody nose showed the price extracted from one round of toe to toe slugging.
Angulo still had not recovered at the start of round two and took to the ropes as Kirkland mercilessly assailed him with left uppercuts and right hooks. Although a left hook badly hurt Angulo, the Mexican contender found inspiration from his countrymen’s cheers and closed the round with a flurry.
Wisely, Angulo tried to limit the brutal exchanges by boxing Kirkland behind his jab. As the more technically disciplined fighter, Angulo found early success by landing first with his straighter punches. Kirkland took the opportunity to show off his own boxing acumen by getting on his toes to slip shots. The harder punches again came courtesy of the Mandingo Warrior, who scored well in close with uppercuts and left hooks.
In the fourth, Angulo’s will was visibly sapping away. He turned away from a Kirkland assault to complain to the ref about his mouthpiece. He hands were noticeably slower and Kirkland beat him to the punch in every exchange. When not punching, Kirkland even showed competent defense with head movement.
The fifth round was no better for Angulo. Kirkland’s uppercuts were landing at will. Each punch sagged Angulo’s legs and brought him closer to the canvas. A Perro left hook earned him four hooks in return. Kirkland closed the stanza by hurting Angulo with a collection of power shots to the body.
Amazingly, Angulo made it off the stool for the sixth round. The end came quick. Kirkland’s punches pushed Angulo to the ropes, where a final barrage of unanswered blows prompted the stoppage.
The win was a semi-final eliminator for the WBC junior middleweight title, current held by Kirkland’s Golden Boy Promotions stable mate Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
On the undercard, Peter Quillin (26-0, 19 KOs) made a successful HBO debut with a sixth round TKO of Craig McEwan (19-2, 10 KOs). Quillin stunned McEwawn with a left hook and landed two solid right hands before the referee stepped in. McEwan lividly protested the stoppage as premature.
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As cool as it is to get a fight prediction right, boxing is a sport where I’m even happier to be completely wrong. The Sweet Science never ceases to amaze me. I picked Angulo by KO on the premise that he was the more durable fighter. The one thing I nor anyone else could quantify was Kirkland’s will to win. It was heart and not his chin that caused him to get up from that hard knockdown and survive the subsequent barrage of punches in round one. This is the one sport where your spirit and mental resolve matters so much more than whatever physical talents you’ve been blessed with. I’m off to rewatch this fight about five more times. Put the opening three minutes down as the 2011 Round of the Year.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 