Kirkland vs Molina: James Kirkland Will Do What His Team Tells Him To Do

Last Saturday, James Kirkland and Carlos Molina had a strange fight where Molina neutralized Kirkland's power and stamina with slick defense and substantial clinching. Personally, I think that Molina should have been warned and had a point taken away for excessive holding. Yet, the strangest part of the fight was the end when Molina got disqualified for having his corner in the ring during the knockdown.

Mind you, his corner did not interfere with the match and the knockdown did occur essentially simultaneously with the bell, so I have no idea why the referee had to talk to the commission or why he had to disqualify Molina. To his credit, James Kirkland did say in the post-fight interview that he would take a rematch with Molina, and he repeats that statement with a rather large caveat according to Michael Campbell.

"Right now I don't care. Molina if he wants that [rematch], I'll give him exactly what he wants. I have a team and I'm allowing my team to move me where they want to move me. If they tell me 'Carlos wants another ass-whopping, give it to him' and we'll work that. I'll say cool I'm all for it. If they tell me to fight this person or that person, I'm all for it. My job is to train and fight. I'll fight Carlos any day, but I have a team and we're going to put our heads together and see what we're going to do," Kirkland said.

His team is never going to let Kirkland get near Molina again unless they get a specialized referee who is very strict about holding. Golden Boy does not want to make a risky fight with boring opponent like Molina. Even if they got a strict ref, I would still favor Molina. When he was holding less in the early rounds, he really frustrated Kirkland to the point where Kirkland seemed a little gun shy.

I wouldn't totally hate a rematch, but I think that Molina would take it quite easily. He is just too technical and too skilled to be troubled by Kirkland's one-dimensional style. Molina did get hurt late in the fight, and this may be a conditioning problem, but still I think he would have been fine in the final two rounds if he was allowed to continue. Would you guys like to see a rematch and do you think Molina would win?