Kirkland's chin.

[VG_Addict]

How bad is it? He's been down at least 8 times. Once against Conyers, 3 times against Ishida, once against Angulo, and 3 times against Canelo.

Did prison really take that much out of him? Is it his defense? Or is his chin just that bad?

[Derranged]

His chin is bad.

[Adamjr91]

Kirkland's chin isn't that bad. It's his defense that is absolute ****.

[bigjavi973]

How bad is it? He's been down at least 8 times. Once against Conyers, 3 times against Ishida, once against Angulo, and 3 times against Canelo.

Did prison really take that much out of him? Is it his defense? Or is his chin just that bad?

The only times he lost was without ann wolfe.... she understand the hot/cold part of boxing.

[ИATAS]

How bad is it? He's been down at least 8 times. Once against Conyers, 3 times against Ishida, once against Angulo, and 3 times against Canelo.

Did prison really take that much out of him? Is it his defense? Or is his chin just that bad?

Kirkland is a very interesting and unique case.

If you take Canelo out of the equation, ALL of his knockdowns were in the first round. And he got up every time, even against Ishida he was trying to fight on.

So it seemed Kirkland is always extremely stiff in the first round and suffers flash knockdowns as a result, as well as being prone to being hurt early on. Past the first round though, he recovers and is more focused and can take decent shots. For example, he took a couple monster shots from Angulo in rounds 3/4 that were much harder than what he was dropped from in round 1 and they didn't even phase him.

I'd say, he was a very "chinny" fighter but his will/desire to win overcame it (with Wolfe training his ass off, anything he experienced in the ring paled in comparison to the torture he endured in training camp) and his punch resistance got better as the fight progressed.

But Canelo probably cracked that chin to the point of no return. I think from here on out he's getting KO'd by any and every opponent that has a decent punch.

[SUBZER0ED]

Kirkland is chinny, no doubt about it. His early successes were predicated on the fear factor, and all out attacking style, I think. He'd come at his opponents with that snarl on his face, looking like he wanted to kill them for raping his sister. Those who worked through that and actually landed good shots dropped him.
While he was with Wolfe, he was able to continue on after being rocked, for fear of what she'd do to him if he lost. That chick's sadistic!

[Scipio2009]

How bad is it? He's been down at least 8 times. Once against Conyers, 3 times against Ishida, once against Angulo, and 3 times against Canelo.

Did prison really take that much out of him? Is it his defense? Or is his chin just that bad?

First and foremost, one must separate James Kirkland vs "Mandingo Warrior being trained by Ann Wolfe"; Ann Wolfe is Kirkland's kindred tortured soul, so any fight outside of that pairing should be looked at with doubt.

Beyond that, Kirkland always seems to start off ridiculously slow (notice how Wolfe would always do everything in her power to get Kirkland to the ring as warm as humanly possible); once he gets warmed up, the wrecking machine gets going, and he saws through guys, not taking a backward step for anything.

Without Ann Wolfe properly oiling the machine, Kirkland never gets warmed up properly, leaving himself opened to get blasted out by basically anything early.

[Larry the boss]

First and foremost, one must separate James Kirkland vs "Mandingo Warrior being trained by Ann Wolfe"; Ann Wolfe is Kirkland's kindred tortured soul, so any fight outside of that pairing should be looked at with doubt.

Beyond that, Kirkland always seems to start off ridiculously slow (notice how Wolfe would always do everything in her power to get Kirkland to the ring as warm as humanly possible); once he gets warmed up, the wrecking machine gets going, and he saws through guys, not taking a backward step for anything.

Without Ann Wolfe properly oiling the machine, Kirkland never gets warmed up properly, leaving himself opened to get blasted out by basically anything early.

Great post...........

[1bad65]

I've been in Ann's gym a few times back in the day for sparring. They spar MUCH harder than any gym I've ever been to or trained at, by far. Guys there even ask each there if they are "fighting" that day as opposed to "sparring" that day. After sparring is over it looks less like a gym and more like a post-fight locker room, guys are busted up, bleeding, etc.

It's rough on those guys, and imo one reason Kirkland looks like he's taken alot of abuse yet only lost twice and isn't very old. He takes alot of punishment in training.

Now I do feel Ann is the best option for Kirkland, but with her he just cannot have a long career. Just my 2 cents.

[Eastcoast]

Two things to say about Kirkland's chin:

1) - His fitness level fluctuates too much. He gets way out of shape and then has to boil down to 154lb. It like likely depletes his punch resistance.

2) - Anne Wolfe - but the opposite of what everyone else claims. Anne's training breaks guys down, in the short run it works great, but over years it takes a toll. I've watch James in gym wars taking massive shots, that's one way to get a glass chin, not too mention the excessive wear & tear on the joints. Yeah he got a lot of mental strength out of it, similar to elite level training the military does for special forces operators like Beercules, but you can't do that stuff on a regular basis it breaks you down, especially for 30 year olds and above.

I consider Wolfe's techniques to be overrated and at times detrimental. More credit should go to James Kirkland than her. James has discipline issues and her training did help curb those issues, but otherwise he would've been better off with someone else like Shields, JDJ, or Roach.

I read about a sparring session between Kirkland and Shawn Porter. Day 1, Kirkland was beating the hell out of Porter, Day 2 Porter started dropping James and made him leave the gym. James fights balls out and leaves himself exposed, taking bad shots.