CompuBox PunchStat Report
James Kirkland KO 6 Joel Julio
03/07/2009 SAN JOSE, CAThe relentless Kirkland never really let Julio into the fight. Mandingo got off a fight-high 85 punches in round one- 76 of which were power shots (landing 17). Overall, Kirkland avg’d 77 punches thrown per round. That pressure had Julio, who never hurt Kirkland, fighting in reverse all night. Kirkland showed some discipline as well, averaging 23 jabs thrown per round. He landed 43% (jabs) in round three (9 of 21) and 41% in round five (9 of 22).
Total Punches Landed / Thrown
Round 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Kirkland 18/85 17/82 22/62 15/69 30/80 23/81 21% 21% 35% 22% 38% 28% Julio 14/51 17/62 20/72 13/41 12/34 17/46 27% 27% 28% 32% 35% 37% Jabs Landed / Thrown
Round 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Kirkland 1/9 5/32 9/21 4/29 9/22 3/23 11% 16% 43% 14% 41% 13% Julio 4/21 3/20 1/23 3/18 1/7 2/12 19% 15% 4% 17% 14% 17% Power Punches Landed / Thrown
Round 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Kirkland 17/76 12/50 13/41 11/40 21/58 20/58 22% 24% 32% 28% 36% 34% Julio 10/30 14/42 19/49 10/23 11/27 15/34 33% 33% 39% 43% 41% 44% Final CompuBox PunchStat Report
Punches Landed / Thrown
Total Punches Jabs Power Punches Kirkland 125 / 459 31 / 136 94 / 323 27% 23% 29% Julio 93 / 306 14 / 101 79 / 205 30% 14% 39%
My Thoughts: The third round was the only one I gave to Julio. It's no coincidence that it was his busiest round, the only three minutes of the fight he out-worked Kirkland. For the most part Kirkland just overwhelmed him with aggression and even landed more jabs in what was for the most part a jab-less fight. Julio's connect rate was fine -- he was a little sloppy, but much of that could be attributed to the fact that JK kept him fighting off his back foot for most of the fight. In that regard it's sort of amazing Julio hit him as hard as he did at times in the first four rounds at least, before Kirkland had him worn out and mentally defeated.
Kirkland's defense: We can say it needs work, but it's never going to be good. Again, I think fighters generally are who they are. You're never going to teach Kirkland to be good defensively. He could improve, and likely will just because he'll gain more experience, but he'll never be a good defensive fighter. It's not in the cards because it's not who he is. He trains to be a force of nature offensively, and so far, so good.