Just a day after agreeing to a September 15th world title bout with Saul Alvarez, James Kirkland has bowed According to Dan Rafael of espn.com.
“It was uncomfortable and he was concerned,” said Kirkland’s manager Cameron Dunkin said. he called me and said he wasn’t going to fight. The doctor said his shoulder was healing fine but James was afraid he was going to tear it again. He felt tightness and felt he shouldn’t fight. He said it feels bad, that he couldn’t use it properly. He said, ‘I can’t train right, so I won’t be ready by Sept. 15.’
“He is sick about it. He needs the money. He’s been doing rehab on the shoulder and the doctor said he was ahead of schedule, but the doctor also said you can’t tell how fast you’re going to heal. But he was ahead of schedule and his mobility was ahead of schedule. James told me how much he wanted the fight, the opportunity and the money.
“He’s been stretching it and doing his therapy, but when he began snapping punches, he said he felt a twinge and that it didn’t feel right and that he could tell it wasn’t right. That’s not going to change in a week or two. He said, ‘I can’t train 100 percent, and for a guy like this, I have to be 100 percent.’ He knew he was rushing it.”
“You have to trust the managers and doctors when they say he is OK to go,” said Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said. “So now, he’s not going to be ready and the last thing we want is to start a promotion if the guy is not going to be 100 percent.”
Later on Thursday, however, Kirkland’s story began to change, according to Dunkin. Dunkin said he and co-manager Michael Miller were sent an email by Austin’s Curtis Meeks, a former professional fighter and friend of Kirkland’s who was 9-1-2 with three knockouts in his 2001 to 2008 career. Dunkin said Meeks recently began serving as an adviser to Kirkland and that in the email he told them that Kirkland “would sign the contract today for $2.5 million and that he is ready to go for the right money.”
“Our answer was that James is injured,” Dunkin said. “We won’t fight him if he’s injured, and said he’s obviously not going to be ready to fight Sept. 15. His answer was that James could fight later in the year, but that it would have to be for $2.5 million. This guy is obviously telling him he is getting screwed on the money, which is not the case.
“So James is out of the fight. I can’t get him $2.5 million. That’s ridiculous. I’d love to get him that much because I get a percentage, but it’s not reality. James is a great kid but he’s getting really bad advice. And if he can’t fight, he shouldn’t fight at any price. So it’s just crazy. It’s totally insane. We told James, ‘If you’re healthy, fight. If you’re not healthy, don’t fight.’ But don’t make it about the money because the money he was getting for the fight was very, very good money.”
“So Kirkland has a new adviser who told him not to take the fight unless he gets $2.5 million. That is what I was told. It is unbelievable,” Schaefer said. “I don’t get it. That’s not how we do business. We agreed to a deal with him and he was being paid very, very well.”
“Canelo is the big Mexican superstar and he will be fighting at the MGM Grand on pay-per-view and we will be looking at other names for him to fight,” Schaefer said. “The good news is there are other names out there. It’s a deep division.”
