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03/10/2009 Archived Entry: "Kirkland Halts Julio after 6 brutal give and take rounds!"
Kirkland Halts Julio after 6 Brutal Give and Take Rounds!
Photos and report by Christopher Morgan at ringside
Kirkland (left) looks for an opening against the retreating Julio
SAN JOSE, California — After the disappointing letdown of the first two bouts in HBO’s Boxing After Dark triple header, the electricity from the charged-up crowd of 6,765 was beginning to fade. Joel Julio’s spirited ring entrance, followed by Kirkland’s ice cold march to the squared circle began to wake the crowd, who was hungry for a bout that would provide more than a round and a half of action.
As the bell rang to start the first round, James Kirkland (24-0, 21 KOs) immediately charged face first, showing absolutely zero respect for the hard-punching Columbian Joel Julio (34-2, 31 KOs), who was attempting to employ a back pedaling boxing style reminiscent of Miguel Cotto’s strategy in his fight with Antonio Margarito.
Any attempt to evade Kirkland’s wild rushes was in vain as he continued to bull Julio into the ropes and unleash hurtful combinations to the head and body, one which caused terrible facial damage to Julio’s right eye, which was visibly swollen and leaking blood by the 2 minute mark. With about 15 seconds left in the round, a huge right from Kirkland had Julio badly shaken and holding on as the bell rang to save him from further punishment. The crowd jumped to their feet to applaud the savage action.
Just when it looked like a one sided massacre was starting to break out, Julio began to get a little better at defending Kirkland’s attacks in rounds 2 and 3 and began countering with huge left hooks which surprisingly, Kirkland was able to walk right through with no ill effects despite concerns about his chin leading up to the bout.
Julio misses a wild right hand
When the fourth round began, Julio was showing signs of fatigue as he looked to be taking a break by retreating to the ropes, covering up, clinching and letting Kirkland hammer away with combinations, while occasionally sneaking an eye catching left or right cross to the ever exposed and defenseless head of James Kirkland.
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An exhausted and hurt Julio holds on
Rounds 5 and 6 showed an increasingly confident Kirkland, having taken repeated head cracking shots from Julio with no effect. He continued to rush in wildly having his way with the rapidly fading Julio whose right eye had been continuously targeted. Although it was badly swollen, I’ve seen much worse in high profile fights before, but there wasn’t much hope for Julio at this point, so when the ref waived the bout over after the 6th round had ended, the crowd aplauded the violent effort of both combatents and felt satisfied with the result.
The Undercard
Victor Ortiz (left) and Mike Arnoutis size each other up
In a fight that was supposed to test the young Victor Ortiz and hopefully take him into the later rounds, he instead has another quick but slightly premature stoppage win added to his resume. Victor Ortiz (23-1-1, 18 KOs) ran into the ring getting the support of the largely Mexican-American crowd, and we were quickly underway. The first round showed extreme tentativeness from both fighters as they followed each other around the ring posing and feinting which drew the crowd to start yelling for them to do something. Not much was landed for either fighter; the round ended with only a couple of ineffective offensive outbursts from either fighter.
Ortiz (right) looking a little more vicious in the second round
Round two showed both fighters electing to mix it up more with Ortiz the aggressor and Arnoutis attempting to control the range with his jab. Suddenly, Victor landed a crushing straight left that had Arnoutis immediately retreat to his corner! There, referee Ray Balewicz waved off the fight with Arnoutis covering up on the ropes. Time of the stoppage was 1:27 into the second round.
This bout was too brief to get a real picture of where Ortiz stands among the 140 lb. elite, but stopping a guy in two rounds that has been in with Ricardo Torres, (who was able to drop Miguel Cotto) and Kendall Holt and has never been stopped before is pretty impressive in its own right.
As far as personality goes, Victor has a real star like quality about him. His sister and girlfriend were sitting in front of me during the bout, and Victor came out during the Julio bout and sat in front of me. He shook everyone’s hand and discussed his fight a little bit. There was some talk around ringside that Mike Arnoutis had been trash talking in the lead up to the bout, but to this Ortiz told everybody, “before I fight, I don’t look on the Internet, I don’t check my emails, I turn my phone off, I don’t listen to what anyone is saying, I just focus on the bout.” I hope he has a bright future in this game, as he seems really humble and down to earth.
“Vicious” Victor Ortiz celebrates after his quick 2nd round blowout of Mike Arnoutis
Robert Guerrero (left) and the “Chino Latino” Daud Yordan go toe to toe
In the bout that most of the fans in the arena had come out to see, Local hero Robert Guerrero from nearby Gilroy, California quit after an accidental head butt in round 2 opened a bad cut over his right eye.
Possibly from a combination of outside the ring issues and the jitters of fighting on a big stage in front of a hometown crowd, Guerrero (23-1-1, 16 KOs) seemed to be fighting at a faster pace than usual by rushing into Yordan. This always resulted in a clinch. With the exception of a couple of thudding body shots from Guerrero, Yordan controlled the first round with his quicker hands, landing hurtful looking right counters that had the crowd oohing and ahhing.
The second round featured more of the same as Yordan continued to Frustrate and smother Guerrero while continuing to land hard eye-catching rights. Suddenly, the ref stopped the action after another rush from Guerrero resulted in a clash of heads, producing a bad gash over the right eye of ‘The Ghost.’
After a brief look by the doctor, the ref waived his arms, calling off the bout. The crowd immediately went nuts, throwing debris and yelling obsceneties. It was apparent that the average fan did not know what the technical ruling involving headbutts was, as they thought Yordan had been given the victory. When the No-contest ruling was announced, the crowd calmed down a little.
The doctor examines Guerrero’s cut
Duan Yordan deserves an immediate rematch. Granted, he was a carefully chosen as an opponent, but at the weigh-in and during his ring entrance, I could tell from his body language that he was no joke. He was coming to fight.
