In his first fight since reuniting with trainer Ann Wolfe after his TKO loss to Nobuhiro Ishida in April middleweight James Kirkland forced Dennis Sharpe to capitulate in the opening stanza with two vicious body shots on Solo Boxeo in Frisco, Texas.
Kirkland is a brawler and returned to form against Sharpe (17-8-3, 4 KOs), who landed several flush shots of his own and showed a good chin in resisting the Texan's head shots. But a left on the belt-line forced Sharpe to one knee and a heavy right soon after to the solar plexus sent his mouthpiece flying and put a stop to the contest.
Kirkland (28-1, 25 KOs) didn't quite look like his old self but he showed the ability to both take and deliver a shot, which is a step forward after suffering his first career loss to the Japanese journeyman. Still, the Texan was there to be hit and benefited from Sharpe's lack of pop. He will have to look sharper if he hopes to climb 160-lb. ladder once again.
We fell asleep after this bout to catch our Saturday morning flight to St. Louis, but we hear Brian Vera (19-5, 12 KOs) scored an 8th-round KO with a body shot in a stay-busy fight against Eloy Suarez (11-12-1)