Unbeaten junior middleweight prospect James Kirkland (20-0, 17 KOs) knocked out Mohammed Said (21-6-1, 14 KOs) in the 2nd round on Saturday night at the Emerald Queen Casino, in Tacoma, Washington. Kirkland knocked Said down twice in the first round, and then a final time in round two. Said wasn’t able to beat the count on after the 3rd knockdown.
Unlike in his last fight against Ossie Duran in June 2007, Kirkland, 23, came in tip top shape, showing no signs of excess fight or poor fatigue which hampered him in his last outing against Duran. While receiving he referee’s instruction, it seemed immediately clear that Said, 33, looked badly frightened of Kirkland. I knew the look, having seen it many times before with fighters that were seemingly psyched out before they even landed a blow. Sometimes it turned out to be no big deal, as they were able to go out and fight effectively. However, more often than not, it was a signal that they were going to lose the fight badly.
After witnessing the Russian Victor Oganov’s (26-1, 26 KOs) 9th round KO loss at the hands of Colombian punching machine Fulgencio Zuniga (20-2-1, 17 KOs), I must admit that I wasn’t the overly surprised by the ease of the 9th round stoppage victory for Zuniga. I’d only seen a couple of Oganov’s fights – against Sam Reese and Richard Grant – but that was all I needed to see to know that Oganov was overrated and wasn’t in the same class as Zuniga. As it turns out, I was correct. In this regard, Oganov represents the class of that is built up over time by throwing him in with overly soft opposition, in other words, fighters that he can easily beat to help build an impressive knockout record. 
Welterweight prospect Shamone Alvarez (19-0, 11 KOs) defeated Germain Sanders (27-4, 17 KOs) on Friday night by 12-round unanimous decision at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, new Jersey. At stake, was Alvarez’s NABO welterweight title, which he retained by defeating Sanders. The bout was from interesting, however, as both fighters lacked any real power to speak of and thus spent much of the bout landing rather weak looking combinations. Going into the bout, Alvarez was the fighter to keep an eye on, as he’s being hyped for a potential challenge for the WBO title at some point in the near future, but after watching him fight on Friday night, I’m hoping he avoids fighting for the title for a little while longer, because he’s not ready at this point. 
Welterweight Victor Ortiz (19-1-1, 14 KOs) came on late in the 10th round to knockout veteran Emmanuel Clottey (24-8, 14 KOs), the older brother of Joshua Clottey, on Thursday night at the Grand Plaza, in Houston, Texas. Clottey, 33, was knocked down twice in the tenth, before the referee Ronnie Halston swiftly moved in to put a stop to the bout at 2:59, with just a second to go in the tenth round. Up until then, Clottey had did little to distinguish himself in the fight, often throwing only a handful of punches each round while attempting to mostly avoid getting hit. He never seemed to get untracked during the fight, and only showed brief hints of the kind of talent that his younger brother, Joshua, posses. 
By Dave Lahr: Heavyweight challenger Tye Fields (39-1, 35 KOs) completely dominated an intimidated looking Domonic Jenkins (12-7-1, 6 KOs), stopping him in 7th round after Jenkins failed to come out for the 8th round on Thursday night at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jenkins, 34, looked like he didn’t want to be there from the opening bell, as he rarely threw punches, and instead mostly stood in front of Fields and absorbed continuous punishment for seven rounds. The fight perhaps should have been stopped as early as the fourth round when it became apparent that Jenkins was not interested in exchanging punches with the 6’9″ Fields. Although it’s hard to understand why not, since Fields didn’t present any semblance of defensive ability all fight long, with his main focus being his offensive output.
Featherweight boxing veteran Antonio Davis (24-3, 12 KOs) was simply too much for the young southpaw prospect Leon Bobo (16-1, 2 KOs), stopping him at the end of the 5th round on Wednesday night at the Bell Auditorium in Augusta, Georgia. Bobo, 28, was knocked down twice in the 5th round, and was penalized twice for holding, once in the 4th and another time in the 5th round. At the the end of the 5th round, Bobo requested that the fight be stopped due to the amount of punishment he had sustained during the course of the bout. 
By Kevin Dinkins: Since destroying Lamon Brewster in six brutal rounds last month on July 14th, there’s been a tremendous amount of curiosity about who IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (49-3, 44 KOs) will elect to fight next. Of the names most bandied about, Corrie Sanders and Evander Holyfield have come up the most. Since Wladimir has a non-mandatory defense coming up, he’s free to take on a lower level fighter like these two, not that they’re not credible opponents, mind you, but clearly not at the top of the class at this stage in their careers. Normally, Wladimir would fight a lower guy, possibly someone in the lower top 10 or possibly as low as 14, but a big problem right now, unfortunately, is that many of the fighters in the top 10 are busy and have fights coming up. 
By Chet Mills III: According to Kommersant, the Russian news agency, former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis (41-2-1, 32 KOs) is interested in fighting a rematch with Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs), if the money is right, and only if Vitali can somehow win back a heavyweight title. No doubt, it’s a tall order for Klitschko, who has been out of boxing for the past two years after retiring due to numerous injuries. For the bout to happen, Vitali, now 36-years old, must beat Jameel McCline, his next opponent on August 22, 2007, in Germany. If all goes well in that bout, Vitali then faces the winner of WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev and challenger Samuel Peter.