Boxingtalk's Fire With Kevin Kelley

By Jose Aguirre

03/03/2005

Boxingtalk's Fire With Kevin Kelley

Jose Aguirre: How does it feel to be returning to the Garden tonight? I'll be running to my house. I feel like I built part of that house. Me, Junior (Jones), Tracy (Patterson) as New York fighters coming up and proving that the Garden boxing team at the time promoted by Bobby Goodman was a stern group of physical fighters that was nothing to be dealt with. People took to Garden shows as locals that would never branch off."

JA: How excited are you to be coming back to your hometown and putting on a show?

KK:"I'm so excited that it's not about money or about a big card. It's about the fight. I was supposed to fight the 13th in England and I ran my time doing medicals and doing everything. I've been in Vegas training for a year and a half. Alot of people think I quit boxing. No, I was in the gym working on technique, style and working on things that you have to let go. Certain things you have to let go. It's hard to let things go. I changed things and I'm the new rejuvenated Kevin Kelly. I'm always still me night and die. I wake up with me in the morning. Tells me right there if I'm still me. Should I box or shouldn't box. So I made some changes, moved up to 130lbs. Really committed myself at 130lbs. I've been sparring with Steve Luevano, 26-0. Wayne McCullough, who I thought won his last fight. Stevie Forbes. My work in Vegas is almost like championship work. Fighting is the easy part."

JA: How's training going overall?

KK:"Great. I've been training for a year and a half so if anybody is thinking that I'm just coming back to train they're mistaken. I've been getting guys ready for their fights. You have Corrales, he's in the gym. Hasim Rahman is in the gym. I've just been sitting back thinking and knowing that this sport is ninety percent mental. So to get my mentality right I had to let the featherweight division go. It was me no longer. I had no success in it in the last five years. I had great success at 130lbs. I beat Humberto Soto is number one in the world now. My journey back had four fights and only one defeat and I had two knockouts. Make no excuse no regrets my body can't hold up on injuries and things like that."

JA: Is there a name of a possible opponent that you'll be facing?

KK:"I don't know. This fight is based on a two fight series we're going to do. We're probably going to fight this fight here and be back in the Garden April 30th
if everything goes fine. We look to fight a bigger name in April. It's nothing big, just a fight to get me back in there."

JA: So the next fight is a warm up to get you back into the ring. What are your plans after that?

KK:"My goal and my quest is to win my third world title. I've never won a belt in another weight class. Those are motivations right there. Everytime I fight at 130lbs I have grat success. I'm stronger, I'm faster. I do better things. But I never committed myself. It's a goal of mine to win my third world title. I know I could beat anybody at 130lbs. Any champion, whoever, Morales. The two fights that I did have with Morales and Barrera I wanted to do at 130lbs. They didn't want to do it at 130lbs. Everybody wants to keep me handicapped. Out of weight class where I could no longer fight.

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