Currently doing the rounds to promote his September 14 fight with Edgar Berlanga, Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez was a guest on the Sways Universe podcast yesterday, and the reigning super middleweight champ fielded a number of questions. Canelo’s perhaps most interesting answer to a question came when he was asked who the hardest hitter he has ever faced is.
Canelo recalled the sheer force James Kirkland hit him with during their short, one-sided fight (one-sided in favor of Canelo, who won via third-round stoppage back in May of 2015). Kirkland, known as “The Mandingo Warrior,” featured in some great action fights during his up-and-down career (see his epic with Alfredo Angulo from November of 2011) – and now, here is an all-time great telling us Kirkland hit him harder than anyone else he has shared a ring with managed to hit him.
“I think the most power I have felt is from James Kirkland,” Canelo said, this statement surprising his host. “He hit me in the arms, and that is the hardest thing I have felt. If he hit me in the head, he’d have f*****g……..(laughs). So I said, ‘I need to get this over early,’ and then I knocked him out. He is a great fighter.”
Kirkland, who is a real subject for a ‘where are they now?’ feature, will never go down as a great fighter, but he was for sure a great puncher, and Kirkland, who finished with a 34-3(30) record in December of 2020, was great entertainment for we fans. Canelo did indeed get Kirkland out of there quickly, and it would perhaps have been a different fight if Alvarez had been unable to do so.
Kirkland, if he had been blessed with a sturdier chin, may well have been a long-reigning world champ. As it is, Kirkland ranks as one of the most dangerous fighters ever to have won a world title. Kirkland, who was trained by female great Ann Wolfe, sure made his mark on the sport, though. Kirkland made a big impression on the mind and in the memory of Canelo Alvarez!
