James Kirkland is an aggresive, KO artist with a decent skillset and has looked impressive against most of his opposition so far. Good prospect with a record of 23 wins (20 KO's) and no losses.
Can he take over the weak 154 divison who titlists consist of Sergio Mora, Sergiy Dzinziruk, Verno Phillips and Santos. Spinks and Ouma are still floating around. I think he can save 154 what are your opinions. I could be totally wrong though and he could get beaten.
I think it's very premature to start proclaiming that Kirkland will not only win a title but unify the jr mw division. My scouting report on Kirkland is that he's got the 'killer instinct' and aggression that many fighters lack and has decent power to back it up. However, his defense is less that sufficient and will have to improve if he wants to stay undefeated. Hopefully Kirkland's management keeps him fighting frequently and gradually starts step up the level of competition....
I think he can win a title, but I don't know about unifying the division. I think guys like Julio and Angulo could beat him. His defense at this point isn't great and he's open to get hit. A very exciting fighter though and I tune in everytime he fights.
First of all, very few people ever unify a division. So, it's really unlikely that Kirkland would do it even if he were to eventually become an all-time great. Second, the type of fighters who usually do it and usually well-rounded and versatile. Mike Tyson is the only exception. Tyson did it in what was a weak heavyweight division. 154 is weak, but there are A LOT of good prospects coming up. So, if Kirkland is going to unify the division it better all be done in his next 3 or 4 fights. Otherwise, it ain't happening.
Kirkland need to work on his defense. He's been knocked down before because of his lack of a better defense. He got up to whoop the guy but he exposes himself too much (no not like that you pervert!). Against better quality fighters he might get in trouble.
he's still pretty raw. seems like he's in great shape, but against the upper echelon in and around 154 he would have trouble, especially if he didn't land something meaningful early on.
He didn't look as good as he normally does against Cortes but I'll put that down as being overly eager to impress his hometown fans.
From what I've seen of him so far, I think he can become a titlist and one of the top guys in the division, not sure if he'd unify but 154 isn't the deepest of divisions so it's possible.