Kirkland and Lemieux - What is needed for them

[deanrw]

So we watched two prospects lose over the weekend, for vastly different reasons. They will also need to try different approaches in my opinion to be competitive with the top of their divisions.

1: Lemieux - He simply needs to tone it down. Friday's fight proved that he simply just cannot roll over everyone. He needs to show more patience like he once did. I believe once he learns pace and patience, he will stop depending on his punch as much, and will find success.

2: Kirkland - He needs to do the opposite. He needs to recapture his crazy, wild, relentless and killer persona that he had with Anne Wolfe. That wild offense doubled as his defense. It made his opponents reluctant to punch when he was punching. If he can grab that back, he also will find success.

[Battle*Hardened]

Controlled aggression. As simple as that. Some more experience would help too.

[deanrw]

Controlled aggression. As simple as that. Some more experience would help too.

For Lemieux yes that is exactly what he needs. He also needs to learn how to tie up and take little breaks. I believe Kirkland needs to find his inner animal again. The current guys he is with have him too tame. They also need to slow down his fight schedule. he very well could be suffering from training burnout.

[BetterCallSaul]

Kirkland will amount to nothing more than a dangerous contender. He may beat a few high profile opponents, but he will never be the best in his division or enter any p4p discussions. He lacks the basic skills and speed to compete with the very best fighters, and relies heavily on his power to defeat over-matched opponents.

Basically, he is a c-class fighter that was over-hyped despite never really beating anybody world class and at the top of their game. His prison stint didn't do him any favors, but the deficiencies were there before he was sent down, and would have eventually been exposed regardless of his incarceration. His time spend away from boxing just meant that it took a much lesser fighter to expose him than it would have taken a couple of years ago.

Kirkland is Lacy mark 2. But to be fair to Lacy, he went 12 with Calzaghe so maybe Kirkland isn't even on that level.

[The_Demon]

Kirkland needs too man up and give his opponent some credit,he acted like a right dick last night,showed what a bad sport he really is

[deanrw]

Kirkland will amount to nothing more than a dangerous contender. He may beat a few high profile opponents, but he will never be the best in his division or enter any p4p discussions. He lacks the basic skills and speed to compete with the very best fighters, and relies heavily on his power to defeat over-matched opponents.

Basically, he is a c-class fighter that was over-hyped despite never really beating anybody world class and at the top of their game. His prison stint didn't do him any favors, but the deficiencies were there before he was sent down, and would have eventually been exposed regardless of his incarceration. His time spend away from boxing just meant that it took a much lesser fighter to expose him than it would have taken a couple of years ago.

Kirkland is Lacy mark 2. But to be fair to Lacy, he went 12 with Calzaghe so maybe Kirkland isn't even on that level.

Well neither guy has the style that would indicate long term upper echelon careers. Both are capable of winning a belt, but neither can be a long term champion. What we have are two exciting knockout artists who are good for the sport. They both have the ability to make a little noise and pick up some good paychecks along the way while pleasing the fans.

[deanrw]

Kirkland needs too man up and give his opponent some credit,he acted like a right dick last night,showed what a bad sport he really is

Why should he? That would be admitting defeat. A guy with his mindset would kill his own confidence if he gave credit to the other guy. He needs his killer mindset intact. He still needs to think he cannot be beaten. Did you ever see Roberto Duran give credit? Nope.

[SOTO]

James Kirkland did not look in shape at all, I wonder why he is no longer with Ann Wolf.. I thought he use to fight at 154 also. I also think that he was not all there on this fight mind and body.

David needs to calm down a lot more and work on his defense.

[Jim Jeffries]

Haven't seen the Kirkland fight yet, but it looked to me like Lemieux doesn't keep his guard up high enough and kept taking shots on the temple and high on his head behind the ear. Plus he burned up too much energy trying to knock Rubio out early and didn't seem to have a plan B. Also looks better suited to 154, if he can safely make that weight.

Both are young enough to iron out holes in their game and even if they won't be champs, should give us entertaining fights in the future.

[FerdinandMarcos]

Controlled aggression. As simple as that. Some more experience would help too.

Well their asses sure got some experience last night.

Kirkland was lucky to be in with a guy that didn't punch very hard...or he would have had a broke jaw too...or worse.