Former world junior middleweight contender James Kirkland stopped veteran Jas Phipps in round two Saturday night at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

With the victory, Kirkland improves to 34-2, 30 knockouts.

Kirkland, best known for his HBO run and his brawl with Canelo Alvarez before getting knocked out in May of 2015, returned to the ring from a four-year absence to knock out Colby Courter on Aug. 24 in his hometown of Austin, Texas. The 35-year-old was facing a fighter in Phipps, who was coming off a majority-decision loss to Edward Ortiz on the same Austin fight card.

From the opening bell, Kirkland was the aggressor, putting Phipps on the defensive. Phipps was game, attempting to counter the southpaw Kirkland with two-punch combinations to the head.

Kirkland continued to walk Phipps down, closing the distance and throwing and landing multiple combinations, doing his work as he had Phipps against the ropes. During one exchange against the ropes, Kirkland landed a combination that dropped Phipps to the canvas. Phipps got back up, but looked in no condition to continue, prompting a referee’s stoppage near the end of the round.

Saturday night marked Kirkland’s second fight under the Davies Entertainment banner.

Phipps, who now resides in Killeen, Texas, drops to 10-8-2, 5 KOs.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing