Kel-C Jeffries is so good, it’s increasingly hard to find
opponents for her to fight
If Kel-C Jeffries was a man she’d probably be on a Wheaties Box
or on the cover of some national magazine.
Instead, the world champion boxer from Hollister has to
supplement her income by working as a paid call firefighter with
the city of Hollister.
Kel-C Jeffries is so good, it’s increasingly hard to find opponents for her to fight
If Kel-C Jeffries was a man she’d probably be on a Wheaties Box or on the cover of some national magazine.
Instead, the world champion boxer from Hollister has to supplement her income by working as a paid call firefighter with the city of Hollister.
In between waiting for the phone to ring to help the department put out a blaze or assist at a major accident scene, Jeffries is hard at work training for her next fight.
As a female fighter that training can be extra difficult since she often never knows if the fight will fall through at the last minute because an opponent either cancelled or the fight’s promoter failed to find an opponent that is willing to take on the talented champion, who currently holds more titles than Muhammad Ali ever did.
“It’s really hard. This last fight I fought I didn’t even promote because I wasn’t even sure that it was going to happen until the last minute,” Jeffries said. “It’s really hard to focus when you don’t even know if it is going to happen or who you’re going to fight. How do you prepare for someone when you don’t even know who it is?”
Despite the distractions, Jeffries has managed to make a beeline to the top of her profession since turning pro in 1999 after gutting out a frustrating amateur career that had her fighting only nine times in four years.
“I couldn’t find anyone to fight me back then because there were hardly any women fighters out there,” Jeffries said.
Today, more and more women are getting involved in the sport, but still the pay is miniscule compared to what the men make, and fights are still hard to come by.
“If I was a man, I’d be a multi-millionaire right now,” said Jeffries, who is sponsored by the U.S. Army. “I’ll never make what Robert Guerrero (world champion from Gilroy who is a friend of Jeffries) will make if I fought for a million years. That’s not to take anything away from him. He is an awesome fighter. Just because I’m female I’ll never make what he makes – that’s the reality of it. I understand that. I’m a realist.
“Back in the old days guys would fight all the time and get paid nothing. I consider women’s boxing today to be where men’s boxing was back in the ’30s.”
The money might not be there but the record books still read the same. And for a talented fighter like Jeffries, the title opportunities came in droves just one year after she turned professional.
In 2000 she captured the Women’s International Boxing Federation of the America’s Featherweight title.
By 2002, Jeffries was beginning to rock the women’s boxing scene and captured the California State Featherweight title that year as well as the Women’s International Boxing Association’s Intercontinental Jr. Lightweight title. That same year she also won the International Female Boxing Association’s Featherweight world title.
In 2004 she won the International Boxing Association’s Jr. Super Bantamweight title. And just two months ago, Jeffries captured the North American Boxing Federation Super Bantamweight title as well.
In all the 30-year-old champion – who lives in Hollister but fights out of Gilroy “because that’s the city where she first got her start as a professional” – has a 35-9-1 record.
“I’ve never been knocked out,” Jeffries said. “All of my losses have been by decision. I’d say out of all of those loses only two of them have been legitimate, but that’s boxing.”
Most recently Jeffries fought Oklahoma’s Stephanie Dobbs at a Fight Night at the Tank event in San Jose at the HP Pavilion last Thursday night.
Jeffries, thanks to some stifling jabs in the early going of the bout followed by relentless body blows that stunned her opponent, won the fight by technical knockout in just four rounds.
“It’s been a good summer for me,” Jeffries said. “I had three fights in a row all about a month apart. (Dobbs) had 45 fights. I didn’t know going in what she would be like. She came to fight but I was really on that night and fired up.”
Some 3,000 fans showed up for the evening of boxing. Most of them were on hand to watch Jeffries, who was escorted into the ring by three members of the Army, which got the crowd going wild three nights after the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in 2001.
At ringside was Gilroy’s Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero, the newly crowned International Boxing Federation champion of the world from the featherweight division.
“It was pretty cool. He was yelling Gilroy’s in the house,” Jeffries said. “I’ve known him, his brothers and his family for years. He is really an awesome guy.”
Prior to the bout with Dobbs, Jeffries had no idea who she would be fighting until just two days before the bout. Normally, she wouldn’t even fight an opponent on such little notice but did so because it was in her own backyard in front of her fan base.
“None of the girls will fight me. They get paid good money, over and above what most women get ( a few thousand a fight) but they still don’t want to,” Jeffries said. “I think they shy away because I come to fight. I’m not a knockout artist but I’m a technician out there. They don’t want to fight a woman that’s going to give them a war.”
Hence, Jeffries nickname “The Road Warrior” because of her intensity and tenacity in the ring, as well as her ability to exchange blow after blow while boxing her way out of trouble.
At 30 years old, Jeffries believes that her best battles in the ring are still ahead of her. In between her intense workout schedule and her hopes of trying to break in as a fulltime fire fighter with the city of Hollister, Jeffries is taking on all challengers in the ring.
Her next fight will take place on Nov. 4 in Oregon. As is usually the case, she has no idea who she’ll be fighting but she does know that she’ll be heading off to Vero Beach, Fla. on Oct. 15 to begin working out with her trainer Buddy McGirt.
“I’m still young and I feel great,” Jeffries said. “I haven’t taken many hard shots to the head, and I’m still considered young for most women fighters out there.”
