By Michael Campbell

Junior middleweight contender James Kirkland (31-1, 27KOs) believes that he would have finished off Carlos Molina (19-5-2, 6KOs) in the eleventh round of their WBC eliminator on Saturday night at Reliant Arena in Houston, Texas.

Kirkland, behind on the scorecards, was coming on and knocked Molina down in the tenth round. The bell rang to signal the end of the round and Molina was already on his feet for several seconds. One of Molina's cornermen briefly entered the ring and stepped out - and in a very controversial call - referee Jon Schorle issued a disqualification call.

"I feel that if it would have went on to the twelfth and eleventh rounds, his head was already on the ground, he was hurt - and I kept coming stronger and stronger and I was progessing more and more in the fight - so I don't give him the first ten seconds of the next round, that he would last," Kirkland said.

"That was a beautiful game plan [by Molina]. Carlos came to fight. Everyone knows his style is awkward but I didn't know it was that awkward. I had to go through a few different styles to figure him out, but once I did I progressed.