KIRKLAND HAS SOMETHING TO PROVE

By Michael Swann

This Saturday Boxing After Dark features a premier trio of prospects in their HBO debut in a tripleheader of 10 round bouts. The fights will be shown live from Terrible’s Primm Valley Casino Resorts in Primm, Nevada, beginning at 9:45 ET/PT, delayed on the West coast.

It’s quite a card actually. 2004 Cuban Olympic Gold Medallist Yuriokis Gamboa, 9-0 (8), faces Darling Jimenez, 23-2-2 (14), in a super featherweight bout. Mexican Alfredo Angulo, 12-0 (9), is pitted against Richard Gutierrez, 24-1 (14) in a junior middleweight scrap. And in the opener, James “Mandingo” Kirkland, 21-0 (18), from Austin, Texas is coming off four wins and three knockouts in 2007 to do battle with Eromosele Albert, 21-1 (10), in another matchup of 154 pounders.

Gamboa, Angulo and Kirkland are being matched tough on this card. No one can accuse promoter Gary Shaw or HBO of lining up cupcakes for these guys.

Jimenez has beaten some good fighters, including a KO of Mike Anchondo in his last outing, knocking him out cold. Gutierrez’ lone loss was by majority decision to Joshua Clottey in 2006. And Albert, who holds a three inch height advantage over Kirkland, has fought stiff competition, last year stopping Daniel Edouard and winning a unanimous decision over veteran “Yori Boy” Campus.

Oddly, Albert’s only loss was in 2005 to Julio Jean who is… well, not very good.

So there will be no free lunch for the boxing neophytes come Saturday night. The combined record of the six participants is an eye popping 110-4-2 (81).

James Kirkland has already made somewhat of a name for himself with his exciting appearances on Showtime’s ShoBox series. As his record indicates, Kirkland is a big puncher and he normally takes his opponents out early.

He also knows how to deal with adversity. In his last fight against Allen Conyers in November, he was floored early in round one, jumped up quickly, ate another flush shot, then snapped back to form to stalk Conyers, stopping him at 2:56 of round one.

“He [Conyers] did James a favor because he woke him up,” Kirkland trainer Ann Wolfe said this week. “The previous fight had ended early and we had five minutes to get to the ring and I didn’t have time to get the edge off.

“But you see about Kirkland what happens when he gets up. In my opinion it wasn’t the knockdown that hurt James, it was the shot that landed when he got up. Allen had gotten confident, so I knew he was going to go because James was going to open up.”

Kirkland, now 24 years old, has been fighting all his life. He’s been fighting a life of poverty, the lure of the streets, and desperation. He never knew his father. Boxing is his means to improve his life and that of his family.

And Kirkland is fully aware of the painful alternatives. The wrong crowd and a hand to mouth existence led to James receiving six months in jail and six months house arrest for an armed robbery in 2003. He had found a father figure in Don “Pops” Billingsley at 15, and he resumed James’ training upon his release, along with Ann Wolfe, one of the best female fighters in the game.

Now he is knocking on the door of boxing stardom, and working to improve the lives of his two sons, ages three and six months, and his girlfriend, Vanessa.

“He understands that what he did was wrong,” Wolfe said. “You have to take care of your children before you take care of yourself if you’re going to be a real man.

“He’s fighting to change history. He’s supposed to be a thug, be in prison, be a nobody, and you’re not supposed to take care of your children. Look at his community. 85% of his community does that. But he’s nothing like that.

“One of the most enjoyable things for me in training for this fight is I can see with my own two eyes James improving as a human being, as a father, as a person in the community. I see a little boy who could punch hard who is now a grown man. He picks up his son every day and brings him to the gym with him.

“Boxing gives him the opportunity to live the same life as a doctor, a lawyer, a preacher, or a judge. Boxing saved my life and now it’s doing the same thing for James Kirkland.”

Now Kirkland’s future depends on his winning Saturday night against Albert, the more impressively the better.

Kirkland’s co-manager, (along with BWAA Manager of the Year Cameron Dunkin), attorney Michael Miller said, “ Saturday night will be the biggest test of his career and we’re going to find out where he is on the scale and we’re excited.”

Wolfe said, “He’s training for this fight more than I’ve ever seen. James is a dangerous fight for anybody. He’s got punching power that people don’t even know about yet.

“I think it’s going to be a very good fight for where they are in their careers. They couldn’t have picked a better opponent for James and they couldn’t have picked a better opponent for Albert.

“They’re going to try to bring James into deep water but James gets stronger as the fight goes on. Albert likes to throw 150 shots [a round] and that’s a lot of counters. But he’s going to be fighting a determined Albert who has more to lose because he’s older [33].”

Kirkland is a respectful young man, answering questions politely while referring to his interviewer as “Sir.” He remains unruffled except for one topic.

James saw an advertisement for the fight and asked Wolfe why he was standing in the background of his two comparatively inexperienced stablemates. After all, he’s won as many fights as the two combined have fought, with one more knockout to boot.

For that reason he believes that he should be starring in the main event, rather than opening the show.

“I don’t care where you are on a card,” said Wolfe, however. “You just want people to come back and see what you can do.”

Still, it touches a nerve, drawing uncharacteristic hostility in his tone.

“Am I even on TV?” James asked. “I don’t even know. I’m not even the co-main event.

“I’m very upset, but I have to keep my composure so I can concentrate on my fight. But I’ve been put on the backburner and this is my time to shine.

“They think I’m not very intelligent because I come from a bad environment. Don’t think I’ll do anything because I’m hungry for the money.”

Kirkland desperately wants to put on a good performance. The Kirkland-Albert fight is for the WBO NABO title, a trinket basically. James said that he wanted to fight for a title that “has the world behind it.”

“I’m looking forward to a lot of good action for the fans to show them I’m a championship contender,” James said in conclusion. “I know he’s going to try to take me into deep water but it depends on what kind of chin he has. I hope to see an opening and take advantage of it.”

Kirkland was already at 155 for the 154 pound fight as of Monday, so he’ll likely come in with some pounds to spare.

He’s highly motivated and he’s got a bit of a chip on his shoulder. When a fighter hits as hard as Kirkland does, that’s a bad omen for his opponent if it is a controlled rage. Eromosele Albert is a tough opponent but Kirkland has something to prove so don’t tune in late.