December Kirkland-Rosado fight falls through

Now I won't refer to Gabe Rosado as Nostradamus, but he's surely familiar with how James Kirkland operates. HBO had been lining up a December fight between Gabe Rosado and James Kirkland for their Boxing After Dark series, which had been agreed to by both parties -- right until it wasn't.

In what is hilariously (or frustratingly) typical of Kirkland, it's being reported that after Kirkland agreed to terms to stage the December fight, Kirkland later came back demanding more money for the bout, which immediately derailed it. If you recall, it was just last week when Rosado was talking about a potential Kirkland fight and said that he wasn't going to hold his breath because Kirkland's mind can be all over the place. Specifically Rosado said about Kirkland's erratic behavior:  "one minute he wants to fight, and then the next minute he's like 'nah' and firing his whole team and pulling out of the fight."

Rosado had even quipped that he would require a big advance to fight Kirkland because of the likelihood that he could pull out of the fight at any time. Well, I don't think he got that big advance, but he was obviously spot-on about Kirkland.

Kirkland's tumultuous career, though extremely fan-friendly in the ring, has been almost exclusively comprised of self-inflicted wounds. As a fan of Kirkland, it's really hard to wrap your head around. When he's not in legal troubles, he routinely gets into spats with his on-again, off-again trainer Ann Wolfe. If it's not that, he's fighting his promoters, managers, and anyone else he works with. Even Kirkland's own lawyer has publicly questioned Kirkland's judgement as well as him turning down fair offers for fights. The man is an enigma, and most assuredly his own worst enemy.

Kirkland hasn't fought since getting starfish'd by Canelo Alvarez this past May and who knows when, if ever, he'll return. Meanwhile Rosado hasn't fought in a professional boxing match since getting throttled by David Lemieux last December. Since then he made a return to the BKB pit where he battled Curtis Stevens to a draw this past April.