Jeffries talks it up on
”
Best Damn Sports Show Period
”
World featherweight boxing champion Kel-C Jeffries recently
appeared in front of her biggest audience to date
– and it wasn’t in a boxing ring.
Jeffries talks it up on “Best Damn Sports Show Period”
World featherweight boxing champion Kel-C Jeffries recently appeared in front of her biggest audience to date – and it wasn’t in a boxing ring.
This week the International Female Boxer Association’s featherweight champion from Hollister appeared before a national audience on Fox’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period.”
“It was the best TV experience I have ever had,” Jeffries said. “They treated me like a champion. They treated me like I was a star. They didn’t treat me like an outsider. They made me feel at home.”
Broadcaster Chris Rose, and former professional athletes Rob Dibble, John Salley and Rodney Peete host the show.
Jeffries was on the show to promote her fight IFBA featherweight title bout against South Carolina’s Donna Biggers, which took place on July 2 after press time in Temecula at the Pechanga Resort & Casino.
“All of the guys on the show were awesome, wonderful,” said Jeffries, who lives in Hollister but trains and boxes out of Gilroy. “They treated me like their little sister.”
The show was actually taped June 27 in Los Angles before airing July 3. At the time of the taping, Jeffries had no idea that it was going to be filmed in front of a live audience that included about 75 screaming fans.
“They were all screaming and cheering for me when I came out,” she said. “It was kind of cool. I wasn’t expecting all of the people. I wasn’t really used to all of the attention. There were three pro athletes who were giving me their undivided attention. It was fun. I’m strong and I believe in myself but if I hadn’t been a world champion it would have been extremely intimidating.”
The show was filmed for 30 minutes straight with no breaks, cuts or commercial timeouts.
For Jeffries, it was an opportunity to promote herself while earning recognition from a national audience – something that comes few and far between for female boxers.
“They asked me all kinds of questions… Where was the worst place I fought and about the hematoma I put on the head of one of the women that I recently fought,” she said. “It was fun. They wanted to know a lot of things.”
The hosts also wanted to know how she got the name “Road Warrior,” which was given to her early on in her career by a sports writer, who was impressed by her willingness to travel on the road to fight anyone in their own backyard and not hers.
Based on her record and the titles she’s won, Jeffries is arguably one of the best female boxers in the history of the sport. If she was a male fighter with her credentials Jeffries would probably earn upwards of $20 million a year and be on the cover of about every sports magazine around. Instead, other than being known in the Bay Area, Jeffries, who also works in Hollister as a paid-call firefighter, is far from being a household name.
“I’m sure doing this show will help with that,” Jeffries said.
Jeffries defense of her title against Biggers is scheduled to air July 12 at 8 p.m. on the Fox Sports Network.
The bout against Biggers marked the sixth time she fought in defense of her title, the most by any fighter in any weight class in the IFBA.
