Currently doing the rounds to promote his September 14 fight with Edgar Berlanga, Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez was a guest on Sways Universe podcast yesterday, and the reigning super middleweight champ fielded a number of questions. Canelo’s perhaps most interesting answer to a question came when he was asked who the hardest hitter he has ever faced is.
Canelo recalled the sheer force James Kirkland hit him with during their short, one-sided fight (one-sided in favour of Canelo, who won via third round stoppage back in May of 2015). Kirkland, known as “The Mandingo Warrior,” featured in some great action fights during his up and down career (see his epic with Alfredo Angulo from November of 2011) – and now, here is an all-time great telling us Kirkland hit him harder than anyone else he has shared a ring with managed to hit him.
“I think the most power I have felt is from James Kirkland,” Canelo said, this statement surprising his host. “He hit me in the arms and that is the hardest thing I have felt. If he hit me in the head he’d have f*****g……..(laughs). So I said, ‘I need to get this over early,’ and then I knocked him out. He is a great fighter.”
Kirkland, who is a real subject for a ‘where are they now?’ feature, will never go down as a great fighter, but he was for sure a great puncher, and Kirkland, who finished with a 34-3(30) record in December of 2020, was great entertainment for us fans. Canelo did indeed get Kirkland out of there quickly, and it would perhaps have been a different fight if Alvarez had been unable to do so.
Kirkland, if he had been blessed with a sturdier chin, may well have been a long-reigning world champ. As it is, Kirkland ranks as one of the most dangerous fighters never to have won a world title. Kirkland, who was trained by female great Ann Wolfe, sure made his mark on the sport, though. And Kirkland made a big impression in the mind and the memory of Canelo Alvarez!
