By Mark Vester
At The Tank in San Jose, California, undefeated junior middleweight James Kirkland (25-0, 22 KOs) battered Joel Julio (34-3, 31 KOs) for six rounds and forced Julio's corner to stop the fight.
Kirkland came right out swinging power shots at Julio and trying to smother the Colombian puncher by throwing shots and more shots. The minute Julio would stop and land some punches, Kirkland would continue to throw more punches. Julio suffered a cut above the right eye from a combination by Kirkland. Julio slowed Kirkland down in the second by moving and picking his spots as Kirkland would move forward and try to land more power punches.
Julio stood his ground at the start of the third, exchanging punches with Kirkland as the crowd stood on their feet. Later in the round, Julio shook Kirkland with a right and the two fighters began to once again exchange huge shots. Kirkland got the better of the war and began to beat Julio back to the ropes. Julio's face was getting pretty bruised up in the fourth. Kirkland would come forward and just kept pounding Julio back.
It appeared in the fifth that Julio began to have trouble with his right eye that was swelling up bad. Kirkland was digging some hard punches to the body to slow down Julio's movement. Kirkland came out like a bull in the sixth, throwing some very big shots while Julio appeared to be tired and trying to survive. Before the start of the seventh, Julio's corner stopped the fight to prevent the fighter from taking more punishment.
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