02.09.07 – By Scott Frake: Undefeated junior middleweight prospect James Kirkland (20-0, 17 KOs) stopped a completely overmatched Mohammed Said (21-6-1, 14 KOs) in two rounds on Saturday night at the Emerald Queen Casino, in Tacoma, Washington. Kirkland, 23, ranked # 10 in the WBO and trained by Ann Wolfe, knocked Mohammed Said down twice in the first round and once in the second before referee Robert Howard counted out Said at 2:32 of the second round.
Kirkland, a former outstanding amateur boxer with a 134-12 record and known for his explosive knockout power, wasted little time in getting to business in the first round, quickly landed four lefts and a left-right combination followed by a powerful left uppercut that caused Mohammed Said to drop to the canvas, just 16 seconds into the fight. After Said made it up following the knockdown, Kirkland was immediately upon him, landing powerful straight left hands to the head of Said, who by this time looked like he didn’t know what was happening to him in the ring.
Using bad instincts, Said backed up to the corner and attempted to cover up, allowing Kirkland to walk in unmolested and land another right-left combination and then a huge right hand that sent Said down to the canvas for the second time in the first round at 2:01.
Again, Said got up but he looked like he didn’t want to continue as the referee checked him out and asked him if he was okay. However, the bout continued on with Kirkland pasting Said with huge punches and knocking him around the ring like a doll. Towards the end of the round, Said looked to be recovered from the knockdowns, and even was able to land a handful of decent-looking hooks at the wide open Kirkland, who was that this point forgoing all defensive thoughts in his effort to take out Said as quick as possible. Nonetheless, Said’s punches were thrown with little speed or power and had zero effect in keeping Kirkland off of him to any extent.
Against a slower fighter, perhaps, but against a top caliber fighter like Kirkland, Said’s wide hooks were futile in stemming the tide. Even worse, however, was Said’s footwork after throwing a punch, which often left him clumsily off balance and wide open for Kirkland’s chopping counter shots. Miraculously, Said made it out of the first round without going down again, even though he ate some terrific shots to the head along the way.
In the second round, Mohammed Said came out strong and tried to briefly take the fight to Kirkland. However, after landing a several slow hooks, he began to badly miss and take monstrous counter shots from Kirkland. At this point, I was thinking that Said would be better off holding his artillery until he’s absolutely certain of hitting his target because he was paying a horrific price every time he would miss clumsily and leave himself open for two or three counter shots. A short time later, Said backed Kirkland to the ropes, and instead of covering up in between his wild shots, Said left his guard down, allowing Kirkland to drill him with a three punch combination that dropped Said to the canvas for the final time. The referee moved in and counted out Said at 2:32 of the 2nd round.
Clearly, it’s time for Kirkland to step it up against better competition in the junior middleweight division, perhaps someone like Roman Karmazin or Kassim Ouma. I can see him beating either of those two fighters quite easily.