Robert Garcia Denies Kirkland Rumors But Would Consider Training Him

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    Whenever you go live on radio, there are certainly unexpected things that are bound to happen. So when ThaBoxingVoice Radio Show went live last night, a caller by the name of Liam called in and said he got it on good account from someone at the Robert Garcia Boxing academy that James Kirkland was soon to be Garcia’s new pupil and that Kirkland was fighting Angulo in a rematch on the May 4th Pay-Per-View headlined by Floyd Mayweather and Robert Guerrero.

    One of our hosts, Nestor Gibbs decided to follow up on the rumor on live air to see the legs this rumor had. Gibbs tried a few times to get the 2012 Trainer of the Year on the phone and was not successful, but finally got in touch with Garcia. This news also caught Garcia by surprise a bit.

    “I am denying that, you’re the second person that I heard it from. One of my assistants told me that Kirkland himself was looking to come to my gym on twitter or face book. He was here before but not training with me, but he was here for like a month or so. But I haven’t heard anything from him or anyone near him. My assistant told me that Kirkland said I got to go to Garcia because he finds a way of winning fights or something like that, but that’s it and I heard him say that like a week ago,” Garcia said on Tha Boxing Voice Radio.

    Although there was no truth to the rumor, Garcia did say that he was willing to work with Kirkland in the future if he works things out on his end.

    “I don’t know if he’s still with (Mike) Miller or (Cameron) Dunkin, the same guys that brought him over. I’d have to hear from them or I’d have to go through Kirkland himself. I know the potential that Kirkland has; he’s very strong and has a bright future. There are things that we would have to work out especially if there’s talk about him fighting Angulo. I consider Angulo a friend of mine; we see each other a lot. This is a sport and business and it’d be a challenge to go up against Angulo and (Virgil) Hunter. I’m open to it but I have to talk to Kirkland’s handlers or Kirkland himself.”

    Now just to reiterate, the Kirkland part of the interview was solely questions on rumors that were brought to our air and by no means puts validity on a possible Kirkland-Angulo rematch but was interesting to hear Garcia’s take on it.

    Regarding actually reaching out to Kirkland, Garcia stated, “I’m not looking for him. I’ve been in this situation before. I’m not desperate for fighter. I got plenty of fighters.”

    But he did mention the interest was there especially because he doesn’t have a fighter that campaigns in the Jr. Middleweight division. “With Kirkland in that division he fights in, I don’t have anyone in those divisions so that’d be something I consider. When I have guys that are in the same division and same promoter, there could be problems if I take too many fighters that fight in the same weight division that fight for the same promoter, so with Kirkland, I don’t train no one that fights at the weight division, it would definitely interest me. He was fun to have around and had nice stories about him growing up in Austin and he’s a hard worker. “

    Who knows what the future holds for Kirkland but if he does need a home to train, looks like there’s one that would welcome him with open arms. The lesson for us at ThaBoxingVoice is you never know what happens on live air.

    For Audio of This Interview click here: http://thaboxingvoice.cogito24.com/did-canelo-really-give-ultimatum-plus-robert-garcia-tony-thompson/10638