According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, Undefeated Jr. Middleweight looks to have an early release from prison after being incarcerated for a gun charge which was a violation of his parole.
Kirkland’s original release date of Oct. 2 has been moved up to Sept. 17, according to Kirkland’s manager Cameron Dunkin.
“Sept. 17 is my birthday, so that’s the greatest birthday present I could have right now,” Dunkin said. “I’m so happy.”
“He’ll go to the halfway house, but he’ll have the right to travel and the right to train and fight,” Dunkin said.
Dunkin said Kirkland, 26, intends to fight as soon as possible after his release, and Dunkin has already spoken to his promoter, Golden Boy, about a plan.
“I’ve been talking with [matchmaker] Eric Gomez and [CEO] Richard Schaefer about when he’s going to fight,” Dunkin said. “We think we can get him a fight in October and get him going.”
“The plan would be to have him fight a couple of times before the end of the year, starting maybe in October,” Schaefer said. “We’ll see what works best for him, but then have him fight again in December, maybe on one of our [untelevised] HBO undercards and maybe HBO could show highlights of his fight. After that, hopefully, James and his management feel he is ready to pick up where he left off, which was terrorizing the junior middleweight division.”
“It was wrong, what he did, and he had to pay for it,” Schaefer said. “Hopefully, now he will be able to resume his career and learn from what has happened.”
