Ishida moved up in weight division to knock out the previously undefeated James Kirkland whose record was 27–0 (24 KOs), flooring him three times in one minute and fifty-two seconds of the first round in an eight-round middleweight bout on the HBO pay-per-view televised undercard of Erik Morales vs. Marcos Maidana at the MGM Grand Las Vegas on April 9, 2011