Kelsey
”
The Road Warrior Jeffries
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wins by TKO Thursday against Jessica
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Goodnite
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Mohs
Canyonville, Ore.
Call it a goodnight punch.
Battling an opponent who came in overweight, Kelsey “The Road Warrior” Jeffries returned to the ring last Thursday and delivered a knockout left hook to Jessica “Goodnite” Mohs in the fourth round, leading to a TKO at the Seven Feathers Casino and Hotel Resort in Canyonville, Ore.
In what was Jeffries’ (41-9-1) first fight since Dec. 23, when she defeated Yun-Jung Jun by unanimous decision in South Korea, the Hollister boxer returned to fighting form rather quickly when she connected for the fourth knockout punch in her career.
“A wicked body shot,” said Jeffries’ manager, Bruce Anderson, on Thursday night. “She was waiting for her and hit her with an unbelievable body shot. It was tremendous. One punch.”
The single punch put an exclamation point to a whirlwind three weeks for the champion fighter, though. After spending the last six months focusing on her studies at Gavilan College, Jeffries went to Vero Beach, Fla., immediately following her last final, and spent two weeks with trainer Buddy McGirt.
Returning to California just last week, Jeffries then went north to Oregon for her non-title fight with Mohs (7-18-2) at Seven Feathers, where she improved to 8-0-1 in her career.
Her point-blank body blow in the fourth, though, made her return all the easier.
With Jeffries finding her rhythm, Anderson added, Mohs opened up a little, stepped to her right, and the IFBA Featherweight champion Jeffries planted a left hook into her “solar plexus.”
“She kind of bent over but didn’t actually fall down,” Jeffries said. “I kept hitting her in the head and the referee came in and said, ‘Stop! Stop! Stop!’
“She didn’t go down, so I kept hitting her.”
It was Jeffries’ first knockout since 2006 when she defeated Stephanie Dobbs at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.
With Mohs initially weighing in at 130 pounds, and later at 126.5 pounds, it was also the heaviest fighter Jeffries has seen since Melissa Yanas in 2004.
The contract weight for the fight was set for 126 pounds, and after Mohs came in at 130, she was allotted two hours to shed the excess weight.
Spending that time in a “sweat box,” Jeffries said, Mohs came in at 126.5 pounds, a half-pound overweight. She was forced to forfeit 20 percent of her purse as a result.
“You can only imagine what she weighed in at the start of the bell,” Jeffries said. “From the start of the first round, I was not taking her lightly because she could punch … She caught me with two good punches (in the second round) … You always have to be on guard with fighters like her.”
Ideally a Super Bantamweight (118-122 pounds), Jeffries was having trouble keeping the weight on, a problem that started during her training in Vero Beach, Fla., where temperatures and humidity were constantly flirting at 90.
Coupled with her strenuous training, Jeffries weighed 120 pounds when she returned from Florida.
She weighed in at 120.5 pounds last Wednesday, and was said to be approximately 123 pounds at the bell.
“The fact that she looked huge, she had big thick arms,” Jeffries noted, “but I’m used to sparring with girls that size, so mentally I’m used to it.”
Early on, the two fighters were feeling each other out. Anderson said Mohs threw an unorthodox right hand, while Jeffries noted the Oklahoman’s awkward style, as she fought almost straight up.
“The girl was dangerous,” Anderson said. “She was built like a linebacker, but Kelsey didn’t want to take any chances with her. She hit her in the stomach and it just froze her in place.”
Said to train harder when she’s not preparing for a fight, Jeffries fought in the best shape of her career, Anderson said. Calm, cool and collected, her pre-fight physical revealed Jeffries had a resting heart rate of 46.
In the ring, however, it was perhaps a different story.
“I felt a little uneasy because she was so big,” Jeffries said. “With her size, it made it a great fight for me.”
Certainly not seeking another six-month layoff, Jeffries is already scheduled to fight at Seven Feathers again on Nov. 1, but is also looking to fight sometime in August or September.
After three weeks off from her schooling, Jeffries’ vacation – if you can call it a vacation – is over. She began summer classes on Monday.
“It didn’t feel like I had any days off,” she said. “I was reading all weekend.”
