By Marcus Richardson: Junior middleweight contender James Kirkland’s controversial 10 round disqualification victory over Carlos Molina may turn out to be a costly one, as Kirkland reportedly suffered two tears in his right shoulder, according to ESPN. Surgery will be performed on Kirkland’s shoulder on Monday to try and repair the problem and it’ll keep Kirkland out of action for the next three months while he recovers.
Molina would like to get a rematch with Kirkland, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen even after Kirkland’s shoulder heals. Kirkland has other options for fights, such as Paul Williams and Cornelius Bundrage.
The shoulder injury could be an excuse for Kirkland fans to try and explain why he looked so awful against Molina, but that wouldn’t explain why Kirkland looked terrible in the first few rounds as well. He never looked good at all in the fight, and seemed over-muscled and slow.
The fight controversy came about in the 10th round when Kirkland appeared to push an off balance Molina to the canvas. The referee Jon Schorle ruled it a knockdown and gave Molina a standing eight count after he got back to his feet. The round ended while the referee was still counting. One of Molina’s corner men, thinking the round was over, entered the ring to get ready to put the stool down. However, the referee ordered the person out of the ring and disqualified Molina. The disqualification seemed to be a pretty strict way of calling it, as he could have just ordered the guy out of the ring and let it go. It might have saved Kirkland from losing the fight if Molina had fought well in the 11th and 12th rounds.
It’ll be interesting to see who Kirkland ends up fighting once his shoulder properly heals. He said he’d like to fight Molina but his promotional team likely won’t want that fight because Molina could mess things up by possibly beating Kirkland in a rematch, and that would ruin everything before he’s even made any big money. Kirkland needs a lot of work because he’d struggle against some of the top guys in the division if he fights like he did against Molina.