San Jose – What a happy homecoming it was. Appearing at Fight Night at the Tank for the first time in more than a year, Kelsey Jeffries made sure her return resulted in a resounding victory Thursday at HP Pavilion.
Facing Stephanie Dobbs in the evening’s semi-main event, a women’s super bantamweight bout, the Road Warrior battered her lighter opponent throughout to emerge with a technical knockout with 51 seconds left in the fourth round. The victory was Jeffries’ second in a row and made her a perfect 10-0 in Fight Night appearances.
“It felt really good to be back,” said the Road Warrior, who makes her home in Hollister. “This is my house. It felt good.”
Jeffries (35-9-1) took control of the fight from the start, repeatedly backing the 115-pound Dobbs into the ropes and using an effective jab to land several shots. Midway through the second round, the Road Warrior connected on a solid blow to Dobbs’ head, and moments later landed three more punches to her retreating opponent’s body.
“The body shots, after I found out where I needed to put ’em, were working well,” said Jeffries, who weighed in at just under 119 pounds. “Right hands … everything was actually landing really well.”
The tiring Dobbs (22-23-3) had run out of gas by the third round, but gamely hung on despite absorbing near constant punishment. But finally, another barrage of Jeffries’ blows culminated with the referee calling the bout at the 1:09 mark of the fourth round.
“I’m a technician. I wanted to use my jab … make her miss, and then make her pay,” related Jeffries, who said she wished she would have been even more aggressive. “I felt in control the whole time, definitely.”
After facing a string of opponents that outweighed her by up to 10 pounds, the Road Warrior had her way with the smaller Dobbs in the scheduled six-round bout. Despite the Moore, Oklh.-based boxer’s quickness in the ring, Jeffries continuously moved into position to land the lasting blows while avoiding any significant punishment of her own.
Earlier in the summer, Jeffries successfully defended her International Female Boxers Association (IFBA) featherweight belt in a split draw in June, and then won the inaugural North American Boxing Federation (NABF) women’s super bantamweight title by unanimous decision a month later.
The Road Warrior heads to Vero Beach, Fla. in mid-October for training camp, and is scheduled to fight at Seven Feathers Casino in Canyonville, Ore. on Nov. 4.
In Thursday’s underwhelming main event, Hector Camacho, Jr. notched a technical knockout over George Klinesmith in the third round. Neither boxer provided the announced crowd of 2,754 the excitement it expected, with boos reigning down through much of the junior middleweight bout.
In the two six-round, heavyweight bouts that led off the evening, Teke Oruh knocked out Willie Perryman with 47 seconds to go in a riveting final round, and Malcolm Tann prevailed in a unanimous decision over Sedreck Fields. And in the other undercard match, Salinas’ Jesus ‘Chuy’ Rodriguez won a unanimous decision over David Marquez in a junior welterweight bout to the delight of a large group of his fans.
