James Kirkland vs. Glen Tapia: Kirkland to be trained by Bob Santos

If you were holding out any hope that one of the more popular fighter/trainer combinations in the sport of boxing would be reuniting any time soon, well, I am sorry. James Kirkland, a man who seems to be in the news far more often than he is in a boxing ring, will be trained by Bob Santos for his fight with Glen Tapia on December 7th according to Boxing Scene's Rick Reeno. So, in summary, he will not be trained by Ann Wolfe which we really knew would not be happening all along.

So who exactly is Bob Santos? Well, he's not exactly the most popular name around but he does have some experience. If you have heard of him, it may be because he manages Robert Guerrero and Erislandy Lara. Yes, manages not trains. However, he did train Joel Casamayor at one time and, according to the Boxing Scene's Twitter feed he also helps in Lara and Guerrero's camp with the strength and conditioning.

In full disclosure, I am not familiar with his work as a trainer. But we also weren't familiar with Wolfe when she teamed with Kirkland and that turned out pretty good. Of course, I highly doubt Santos is going to be as grueling on Kirkland as Wolfe was, and Kirkland seems like the kind of person who needs someone to constantly stay on him.

I think this is going to be a type of relationship where it's difficult to draw a conclusion right off the bat. If nothing else, Santos has experience in big-time camps. And, sometimes we forget that not everything needs to be a big splash. Maybe someone under the radar is what Kirkland needs.

As always, we will have to wait and see.