Shobox Fight Report: Kirkland and Angulo Score Explosive First Round Knockouts
 by Gabriel Montoya (Dec 1, 2007) Doghouse Boxing (Photo © Dwight McCann/SHOWTIME)
It was an all action kind of night as Showtime presented another Shobox: The New Generation card Friday at the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez. Alfredo Angulo (11-0 with 8 KOs) and James Kirkland (21-0 with 18 KOs), two junior middleweight prospects showed much promise as they each met their respective tests with ferocity, determination, and decisive results.
First up, in his 5th fight of 2007, was Angulo against Archak Ter- Meliksetian (16-5 with 13 KOs) in what was scheduled for 8 rounds and turned out to be a one round barnburner.
Ter-Meliksetian, despite being off for a year, represented Angulo’s toughest, most battle tested opponent to date and he showed it in the first minute. Working smartly off his jab, Ter-Meliksetian boxed aggressively and looked to take control but his growing confidence would get the better of him. After landing several hard shots upstairs to Angulo’s dome, the Armenian born Ter-Meliksetian would step up his aggression to full on brawl mode. Angulo was only too happy to take the fight there.
Both men exchanged brutal shots but it would be Angulo who would take control. After eating a hard head shot, Angulo would step back, knowing he had Ter-Meliksetian with his back to the ropes and find the space to get off his left hook to the mid section. This set up the beginning of the end combination of left hooks and right hands that put Ter-Meliksetian on his back for the first time.
Rising on wobbly legs, Ter-Meliksetian would answer the ref’s question “Do you want to continue?” with an angry “Yes” and head back into the fray. His determination however would be for naught.
Angulo would set up his finishing shot by landing a hard jab to the body followed by a left upstairs and a right hand from hell that Ter-Meliksetian got all of as he crashed to the canvas prompting the ref to halt the action at 1:19 of the 1st
round.
Just as quickly as Shobox announcers Steve Farhood and Nick Charles wondered if Kirkland and the hard punching Allen Conyers (11-2 with 9 KOs) could live up the action we had just seen, the main event surpassed it.
The southpaw Kirkland came out in his typical balls to the wall aggressive style. Literally flying out of the corner he landed a hard left hand followed by a tornado of punches that rocked Conyers into the corner. The beat down was on as Conyers looked doubtful to survive the onslaught much less the round and get his bearings.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the route as Conyers threw a wild right hand that caught Kirkland flush on the way in and made his knees buckle. Kirkland would rise up and back up off balance and take a hard right hand from the onrushing Conyers that dropped him to the canvas for the first time in his career. “I saw an opportunity to catch him and missed and got caught,” said Kirkland after the fight.
Kirkland didn’t stay down for more than second, took the standing eight count and as he put it post fight “I just got up, went back out there, and did what I trained to do.”
What he is trained to do is deliver some of the hardest, fastest shots in the division at a blistering pace. What he did is do just that as he hunted Conyers down and landed a hard right jab, left hand that rocked Conyers and sent him into the ropes looking to clinch. Out of that clinch Kirkland would land another left hand lead and send Conyers sprawling to the canvas and almost through the ropes.
Rising on the wobbliest of legs, Conyers bravely fought back the now more measured and patient Kirkland. Both men traded shots but it was Kirkland who was the fresher of the two and he did more and more damage with every shot he threw. Conyers began staggering around the ring like a drunk as Kirkland kept hurting him but not landing that finishing blow and the ref kept telling him “You gotta show me something, Conyers.”
It would be Kirkland who would show us something as he landed a hard left hand followed by a right hook that sent Conyers sprawling to the canvas and the ref waving the fight off at 2:56 of the first round. This in my opinion is a frontrunner for round of the year.
“I’m a beast,” said Kirkland, “and I’m going to continue to do what I am doing. I’m going to listen to my trainers and look for bigger and better opportunities. Hopefully a World title shot.”
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