By Rob Smith: As I expected, James Kirkland (31-1, 27 KO’s) will be unable to fight WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KO’s) in their previously scheduled September 15th fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, because Kirkland reportedly reinjured his bad shoulder while training today.
Kirkland, 28, had shoulder surgery last March after suffering two tears in the shoulder during his controversial 10 round disqualification win over Carlos Molina. Golden Boy Promotions, the promoters for Kirkland, needed him to take the place of Paul Williams after he tragically was injured last Sunday in a terrible motorcycle accident in Georgia.
Golden Boy Promotions then turned to Kirkland to see if he could take the place of Williams to face Alvarez. It was something that you just knew was going to end badly, because Kirkland obviously needed more time for his shoulder to heal up after the surgery that was performed on it last March.
Los Angeles Times writer Steve Carp said on his twitter page “James Kirkland injured his shoulder while training this a.m. and has pulled out of his September 15 fight vs. Canelo Alvarez at the MGM in Vegas. Kirkland’s manager Cameron Dunkin confirmed the news. ‘He’s probably sick about it.’ Kirkland was scheduled to make around $3 million.”
I knew it was going to go like this, and I’m surprised Golden Boy even wasted time signing Kirkland for the fight. They only finished signing him yesterday, and it seemed like a move that was begging for trouble.
With Kirkland now out of the fight, Golden Boy might want to ask Carlos Molina to replace him because he basically dominated Kirkland the entire fight except for the 10th round when he suddenly got tired and fell down after stumbling. He would be a safer pick for Alvarez than if Golden Boy were to pick out someone really dangerous like Erislandy Lara to face Alvarez. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen because it won’t. Lara is too good and Alvarez is vulnerable as we saw in his win over 40-year-old Shane Mosley last May.