Kirkland-Molina Recap: An Absence of Justice
By UK Boxing Writer Jon Campbell
Last night’s Light-Middleweight bout between James Kirkland (31-1) and Carlos Molina (19-4-2) was a decent fight which was enjoyable to watch, despite the conclusion which was both unexpected and unfair. At the end of the 10th round Kirkland puts Molina down, Molina quickly got up but by this stage the bell had gone. As the referee continued his count he noticed that Molina’s trainer had entered the ring in anticipation of Carlos’s arrival on the stool. The ref, here tells the trainer to leave the ring and then after the ref finished the count and was satisfied Molina could continue.
A moment of confusion occurred in which neither fighter knew what was happening. After an awkward pause, the ref informs the officials outside the ring that he was stopping the fight. Kirkland won by DQ as the trainer entered the ring when the count was still being done, despite the fact the bell had gone. Although in line with the technical rules this appears a very odd ruling and a tremendous anti-climax to a good 10 rounds of boxing with a possible exciting 2 more to come. The ruling was made particularly strange by the fact that the ref did not stop the bout straight away and decided to tell the trainer to leave the ring, finished the count and then decided to give the DQ. Moreover, the fact that the trainer walked in the ring gave Molina no advantage whatsoever as Molina did not even know at the time.
To add insult to injury, the action during the bout was also going largely in the favor of the Californian. He demonstrated great ability throughout the fight and surprisingly appeared to take Kirkland’s best weapons from him due to his ring generalship, movement and ability to tie Kirkland up. Despite the fact that one judge had Kirkland ahead (which by no means accurately reflected what happened in the ring), it was clear for practically all else to see that Kirkland either required a KO or a stroke of luck in the form of what happened. The busier, more accurate and generally better fighter on the night was not awarded the victory just to make it clear.
Kirkland was quite effective in his aggression, but really struggled to gain any points or even create an accumulation of punches which may cause Molina problems. The underdog was not at all fazed by Kirkland’s fighting style and continued to be tricky and spoil in order to put the fight in his favor.
The conclusion was universally disapproved of by both the crowd and presumably the vast majority who watched the fight from home. Even Kirkland and his trainer Ann Wolfe said that Molina performed great and they would have liked to see the fight conclude. The issue I have is I believe that this result has damaged slightly the careers of both fighters. As not only will this affect Molina’s career in obvious ways, it may indirectly, due to the circumstances, prevent Kirkland’s progression with his career as people will notice his win was questionable which may cause reluctance in terms of getting him big fights in future. It is in moments like this in boxing that an immediate rematch must be called to settle the score and allow both fighters to move on with an honest win or loss and remove the controversy.
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