This diminutive battler wasn't one of my favorites when I first saw him; he had a motormouth, and I can't take a lot of talk. As I saw him progress and saw what he was really made of, though, he won me over. I became a fan. He gave it all to you in that ring, a warrior throughout. I realized that while he did indeed talk a lot, it wasn't all about boasting and playing himself up. He just talked a lot. Here's just one example of his heroics, that 1996 fight with Gainer. His wars with Troy Dorsey (the best fight ever aired on the USA network's Tuesday Night Fights) and his losing effort against Alejandro Gonzalez were also superb and rarely discussed bouts. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-C73tlRcvY[/ame] Thanks to Boro Chris for his thread, which made me think of this......
When people mention exciting fighters, he's not usually the first guy mentioned, but I always think of him.........his fights with Dorsey, Gainer 1, Soto, and Hamed are some of the best and most exciting fights of all time. Sal, given your opinion on his talking, whose corner were you in, Kelley's or Hamed's?
Good thread. If you were to make a list of the best featherweight fights of the 90's, Kelly could be included at least half-a dozen times. When you take into account his shoot-out with Dorsey, to an off-the-canvas victory over Goya Vargas to win the title, the aforementioned slugfest with Gaither, the valiant efforts in losing causes against Gonzalez and Hamed, and his come from behind victory over Ricardo Rivera, he definitely deserves to be considered one of the most fun, and exciting fighters of that decade.
Oh, I wanted Kelley to win; Hamed is a waste of air, as far as I'm concerned. Deplorable piece of crap. Good enough fighter, but I cannot stand him. The thought of Barrera ramming his punk face into the ringpost makes me smile. I only wish he'd shoved him under a bus.
Nice, Drew. Sometimes, it's the frailties of a fighter that make them our favorites. He certainly had his, but persevered and left his mark. Gotta respect that.
Kelley reminds me very much of Cornelius Boza-Edwards. A very good OFFENSIVE southpaw boxer with a less than airtight defense, always willing to go to war. He had his flaws but his flaws combined with his skills and fighting spirit made him a very good fighter and always entertaining.
Agree with a lot of this but his talking was too much for me. It started to become a lot of excuses in the mid 90's.
Kevin Kelley and Junior Jones are 2 of the most memorable fighters for me as a youngster. My pops took me to fights at the Paramount back then. (Paramount was the smaller theatre inside MSG). Back then, they had enough fighters from NYC to do some business and have bouts about once a month. We got to see kelly, Junior jones, iran barkley, i even got to see roy jones in one of his first 10 pro fights there. An exciting New York fighter. I wish he had quit fighting sooner.
Well put,my brother.Could you possibly fathom what a prime Chava would have done to prime Hamed?Would have been a beatdown of epic proportions.Hamed would not have known what hit him.
I remember those days,Nicky.I saw those 3 New Yorkers there,too.Before the Paramount was the Paramount,it was the Felt Forum.I saw Sanchez-Gomez on closed circuit there.Thanks for the memories,man:good:good
You saw that? I'm green with envy man. Why couldn't my parents have had me in their early 20's? They just had to be responsible and wait until they were good and ready to raise a kid them greedy *******s.
One of my heroes as a kid. I didn't quite realize how brilliant he was until many years later. I have two huge regrets as a boxing fan: not seeing Sanchez-Gomez live (on closed circuit), and missing Ali in Atlanta '96.....Those old closed circuit shows were incredible. I did see Leonard-Hearns I, Holmes - Cooney, and Leonard - Hagler on closed circuit. I have to agree that yeah, Kelley talked too much but it didn't turn me off on him. Hamed was orders of magnitude worse. Kelley's defensive deficiencies were just too much against the like of Hamed and certainly Barrera.