Cotto vs Kirkland canceled, Kirkland injured

James Kirkland has suffered a fractured nose in training, and is out of his scheduled February 25 HBO pay-per-view main event against Miguel Cotto, with the card scrapped as a result.

Kirkland (32-2, 28 KO) hasn’t fought in nearly two years, since losing a third round knockout to Canelo Alvarez at Houston’s Minute Maid Park the week after Mayweather-Pacquiao.

For this fight, he was back training with Ann Wolfe, with whom he is undefeated in his pro career.

Kirkland, who turns 34 in March, has fought just three times since 2011 — once in 2012, once in 2013, and once in 2015 — and the clock is ticking on his career. This setback hurts badly, as it was a chance for him to potentially physically overpower a smaller (if more skilled) fighter, and at the same time potentially set up another money fight. It wouldn’t have been hard to imagine Kirkland, if he were to beat Cotto, to line up a money bout later this year with Gennady Golovkin, or even a rematch with Canelo. (Of course those two are definitely going to fight in September ;) ;) ;) ;))

Cotto (40-5, 33 KO) has also been inactive, as he sat out all of 2016 following a November 2015 decision loss to Canelo. At 36, he doesn’t have designs on many more fights, period, and it’ll be interesting to see where he goes now. Will this get rescheduled, or will he look elsewhere?