Kirkland stops Berrio in two

Well, Jhon Berrio survived a round.

James Kirkland stopped his Colombian foe at 1:05 of the second round of a scheduled eight-round super middleweight fight Saturday before 1,524 at The Hangar in Costa Mesa, Calif.

Berrio (15-9, 11 knockouts) put up some serious resistance in the opening moments, landing several hard shots and apparently stunning the slugger from Las Vegas, but Kirkland dominated the rest of the way.

Kirkland (27-0, 24 KOs) was firing off a flurry of punches when Berro dropped to the canvas, although it wasn't clearly what hurt him. No big punches landed. He remained on all fours at the count of 10.

Afterward, Kirkland said he hurt Berrio with a body shot but he called the ending "b---s---."

Kirkland also said he was never hurt.

"Not once," he said.

The officials held Berrio's purse immediately after the fight to review the stoppage.

Kirkland was coming off a 34-second knockout of Ahsandi Gibbs in his first fight after a two-year hiatus from boxing, the result of an 18-month prison sentence for violating his parole on a previous conviction.