James Kirkland vs Gabriel Rosado hits November 8th HBO card

The Bernard Hopkins vs Sergey Kovalev light heavyweight championship fight taking place on November 8th in Atlantic City, NJ on HBO just added a co-feature that will promise to deliver fireworks before Hopkins and Kovalev take center stage.

Hard hitting fan favorite Texas fighter James Kirkland (32-1, 28 KO’s) will take on the tough Gabriel Rosado (21-8, 13 KO’s) in a bout where both fighter’s will meet at the weight limit of 156 lbs. Kirkland was the front-runner to face Saul Canelo Alvarez in December however it was believed that Kirkland’s team felt that fight would need to wait as he hasn’t been in the ring since December of last year where he destroyed Glen Tapia in six rounds.

While Rosado has lost his last four boxing matches, with one being turned to a no contest due to a failed drug-test, he has proven in his last four bouts that he’s a tough competitor for any fighter. After getting man-handled by Gennady Golovkin, he went on to lose two very close controversial decisions fights to the undefeated J’leon Love and Peter Quillin. The Love fight was overturned due to Love failing a drug test, and a cut over Rosado’s eye forced him to lose by TKO to Quillin. After getting beat soundly by Jermell Charlo, Rosado turned to the new sport of BKB where he knocked out Bryan Vera in the sixth round of their scheduled seven round fight.