トーク:ミドル級
Then came probably the biggest bomb, dropping shocking news that boxing has had in such a long time when the James Kirkland vs. Nobuhiro Ishida came.
James Kirkland, who recently was released from prison, was on a very fast-paced track to knocking out everyone in his way back to the top of the game. He knocked out both of his opponents with ease within the first two rounds, fighting twice in March before this fight with Ishida.
Prior to this fight, both Jim Lampley and Max Kellerman talked about how Ishida was purposely chosen to make Kirkland look really good by not having any knockout power and by not being an accomplished fighter by the age of already 35 with only seven knockouts on his record. (Still a higher KO percentage rate than Paul Malignaggi).
Ishida came in with a big goofy smile on his face; his fighter profile photo even had a goofy smile on it as well. But now as we all know Ishida had every right to have a big goofy smile on his face, for he knew what none of us knew and that was he was going to knock out the undefeated, invincible wrecking machine who was highly underestimating him.
Ishida knocked Kirkland down three times with much ease, causing the fair but firm Joe Cortez to stop the fight. In fact, if you watch the video Cortez even jumps on Kirkland and lays on top of him for some very strange reason, and then presses his body against Kirkland up against the ropes.
Ishida's enormous upset win erupted the fight fans forums, having everyone and their mother on YouTube searching what they had to see with their own eyes to believe.
No one believed in Ishida so much that they had to improvise and get a last minute Japanese translator for the postfight interview, who did a horrible job since he could barely speak English/Japanese himself.
Ishida's upset was the constant theme and subject for the remainder of the night, having both Lampley and Kellerman constantly talking about it and drawing parallels, and even Oscar De La Hoya reportedly said he will from now on feature a super underdog of 30 to 1 odds on every Golden Boy pay-per-view card from now on.
I personally was hoping for Friday's fight with Japan's biggest fighter Hasegawa to win a big moral victory for the people of Japan against Gonzalez, but he fell short, being knocked out. Ironically Japan's unknown underdog Ishida provided that huge moral victory for the people of Japan with his upset-of-the-year performance. The MGM grand cheered loud for the overnight sensation as he waved to the crowd.
Next up was the huge upset and drama of the night. James Kirkland, an undefeated former prospect who was rebuilding his career after a stint in prison, was knocked out by a largely unheard of, light-punching fighter from Japan named Nobuhiro Ishida. Kirkland seems like a douchebag and refused to give credit to his opponent – claiming that he was never hurt, despite tasting the canvas three times – so it was cool to see the crowd shift allegiances from the American to Ishida, embrace his victory and give him a standing ovation on his way out of the ring. Even better was watching Ishida and his family celebrate at ringside and after the event, signing autographs with a big goofy smile and taking photos with everyone.
