By: Christopher Roche

Was a star born, or is the jury still out?

Junior middleweight power puncher James Kirkland, of Austin, TX, stopped Ricardo Cortes tonight in the second round.

What the ESPN2 audience saw was a man, in Kirkland, who is relentless and powerful, but seemed somewhat flawed. Kirkland threw hard head shots, but he often missed, and the one knockdown in the bout was somewhat marred by an illegal shot (the referee did not call it) after Cortes went down in the second round.

Kirkland is known as a good body puncher, but he only landed one shot downstairs on Cortes. Kirkland took some clean shots from the light punching Cortes, but the bout was stopped prematurely as Cortes was trying to throw a punch.

Kirkland, and his rising star trainer Ann Wolfe, said after the fight that he was charged up in front of an intimate home audience, and he admitted some mistakes. Nonetheless, Kirkland got the win, and his spartan training regime seems to be paying off. Kirkland is definitely one to look out for in his division at 154 lbs.

The bout was stopped at 1:59 of round two, and the 24 year-old Kirkland moves to 23-0, 20 KO’s. Cortes, 28, falls to 22-3-1, 15 KO’s. The bout was televised on ESPN’s “Friday Night Fights” and called by Brian Kenny and Teddy Atlas. Joe Tessitore was on assignment in Orlando, FL, covering University of Central Florida football.