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Jack Welsh on Boxing
BARRERA NOT VIEWING KELLEY AS HBO SLEEPER
In the not too distant future, Kevin Kelley will be
reflecting with his family about his ring career and the night he
fought one of the greatest featherweights in history and there wasn’t
a world championship in sight.
Any way you look at it, the 35-year-old Kelley was a
victim of circumstances beyond his control but created by Marco
Antonio Barrera, who feels he doesn’t need a title to enhance
his position as the boxing’s premier 126-pound athlete.
Barrera, 29, Mexico City’s fistic icon, took a
strong stand against paying outrageous fees to be sanctioned in
championship fights when he decisioned Erik Morales for the WBC
featherweight crown June 22, 2002 at the MGM Grand Garden.
Barrera made no bones about telling Jose Sulaiman, WBC
president for life, to take his championship and stick it where
the sun don’t shine. And he had the same attitude when he
gave Johnny Tapia a chance to lose a 12-round decision in his last
effort Nov.2 in the same venue.
Kelley, a native of Flushing, NY. who became a permanent
Las Vegan in recent years, has no qualms about Barrera’s anti-sanction
fee stance and made it clear when he signed to meet Barrera in a
12-round bout Saturday, Apr.12 bout at the MGM Grand Garden, which
HBO is offering via pay-per-view.
Kelley , himself a former two-time featherweight champion,
is excited about facing the absolute best in his division, acknowledging
Barrera as “unquestionably one of the sport’s top pound-for-pound
fighters in the world.”
“I know what beating Barrera can do for my career,
considering it an upset or not. I feel somebody’s title will
be in line for me. I’m not thinking about the past, I’m
thinking about what I am now. I’ve always felt a fighter is
as good as he wants to be,” said Kelley whose resume is now
54-5-2, 36 KOs since turning pro in1988.
“Motivation is automatic in taking you to a new
level when you have a fight like Barrera. Barrera is a great featherweight
who is always prepared on offense and defense. There was a time
when he was more of a slugger, but I see him now as more of a boxer-puncher
who doesn’t make mistakes and very flexible under pressure.
If I have any kind of advantage at all, it’s being a southpaw.”
Hailed as the Flushing Flash early in his career, Kelley
won his first WBC title Dec.14,1953, decisioning Gregorio Vargas
in New York and regained the crown when he defeated Louie Espinosa
in 12 on Feb.2,1996
Perhaps Kelley’s most spectacular performance was
an explosion he didn’t win when he faced undefeated Naseem
“Prince” Hamed Dec.19, 1997 in Madison Square Garden.
A product of incredible hype, Hamed made his America
debut as a fighter with an awkward style who fooled UK fans big
time more with his weird babble than substance but Kelley never
took the bait.
It was a slugger’s field day from the opening bell
with Hamed and Kelley decking each other three times through round
three.
With the Garden crowd on its feet roaring from the start,
Kelley’s bid for an upset ended in the fourth round when Hamed
stretched him for a TKO in the fourth round with a wild right to
the jaw.
In reflection, Kelley remembers the wild night in the
Big Apple like yesterday.
“Since boxing fans in America really didn’t know Hamed
at the time, I really didn’t expect the fight to be as big
as it was. I learned that when an opportunity comes, you have to
give your absolute best in the ring because you might not ever get
that kind of opportunity again,” said the affable former champion.
“I took time off from the ring to put myself in
a position of hunger for a new challenge and another victory. Now
Barrera has given me that kind of challenge and opportunity again.
I want to be the best possible Kevin Kelley he could be fighting.
The hunger is back. The media and boxing fans will be surprised
on Apr.12. Learn as I have, never count out a champion.”
Nevada’s licensed bookmakers have installed Barrera
as a minus $15.00 favorite with Kelley at plus $10.00 but the abdicated
super star, who has won the featherweight crown four times with
a 56-3, 39 KOs ledger, definitely isn’t taking Kelley lightly.
Barrera, who arrived in Las Vegas Monday after preparing
in Mexico City and Big Bear, Ca., has approached this match-up just
as intently as if there was a championship on the line.
“I have to consider Kevin Kelley as a dangerous
opponent because he knows what a victory could do for his image.
He has been talking about doing something that might get him in
boxing’s Hall of Fame and that means he’s talking about
this fight, looking for a situation. There is no way I’m going
to be overconfident.
That has happened to me before,” said Barrera.
When Barrera dwelled on what damage over confidence can
do, he was talking about two stunners he had with Junior “Poison”
Jones of Brooklyn, NY, in the mid-1990s after winning the WBO 126-pound
crown with a unanimous 12-round decision over Daniel Jimenez Mar.25,
1995 in Anaheim. Ca.
After eight defenses, Barrera went to Tampa. Fla., to
face Jones Nov.22, 1996 and suddenly his 42-fight winning stretch
was put asunder on a fifth-round disqualification.
After four close rounds, Jones dropped Barrera with a
right to the jaw in the fifth round. The shaky champion rose and
appeared to be going down again from another shot when his cornermen
jumped into the ring just seconds before the bell. Barrera led on
three judges’ cards but his corner’s actions created
a
controversial disqualification.
The rematch was held Apr.18, 1997 at the Las Vegas Hilton.
This time it was a close 12-rounder with Jones getting the decision
on scores of 114-113, 114-112, and 118-111, getting help when Barrera
was penalized one point for a low blow in the ninth rounds.
“I’ll admit I was thinking these fights with
Jones would be easy for me and looked what happened. The first one
in Tampa was highly controversial on the disqualification and I
definitely thought I did enough to win the return in Vegas, even
after losing a point on a foul,” Barrera recalled.
Making a total rebound, Barrera won 13 of 14 starts coming
up this assignment with Kelley.
After regaining the WBO crown and making two defenses,
Barrera challenged Morales, then undefeated WBC feather king, in
Vegas Feb.19, 2000 on a controversial 12-round split decision in
a spectacular pairing where Barrera scored a knockdown in the 12th
round.
Morales added luster to his charismatic career Apt.7,
2001at the MGM Grand Garden when Hamed returned to the States for
his second appearance with a 35-0 record. The bookies made “The
Prince” a
13-5 favorite.
Barrera shocked ringsiders as well as Hamed with an artful
boxing display, handling the British import like he invented him.
Marco staggered his cocky but inept adversary in the first and 11th
rounds but had to be satisfied with an easy decision on scores of
116-111, and 115-112 twice, losing one point for a foul in the 12th
round.
Barrera is not expected to go to war with Kelley but approach him
with the same style that has been well documented in his victory
over Morales last June 22 to win the WBC crown he wouldn’t
accept.
“After I was finished with Hamed, I got a big message
that a boxer gets hit a lot less than a puncher, so we’re
going to be smart with Kelley and box him. We consider Kevin a great
fighter, and an aggressive fighter who wants to win,” Barrera
reviewed. “ With his vast experience and power punching, I
don’t view this as an easy fight. We have focused in all the
details because at this time in my career, I’m not about to
take anybody lightly.”
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