After months out of the ring, Kelsey Jeffries laces up her
gloves tonight
Hollister – After the longest layoff of her professional career, Kelsey “The Road Warrior” Jeffries is raring to lace up the gloves and get back into the ring.
“I’m so ready for it, my manger (Bruce Anderson) wanted me to take a break and I wanted to fight,” said Jeffries in a telephone interview Wednesday night from Seven Feathers Hotel and Casino in Canyonville, Ore., where she will take on Philadelphia’s Lakeysha Williams in the main event of a seven-bout card tonight.
It’s been more than six months since the Hollister-based boxer last set foot in the ring – in a successful title defense of her International Female Boxers Association (IFBA) world featherweight belt against Trish “TNT” Hill, also at Seven Feathers.
The Hill fight was the second 10-round bout in a row for Jeffries, who called her busy schedule late last year, “the toughest stretch in my career.”
Williams poses an “interesting challenge,” according to the Road Warrior. Though arranged as a warm-up opponent to prepare for Jeffries’ busy summer schedule that includes fights at Legends Casino in Yakima, Wash. on June 25 and at HP Pavilion on July 21, Williams is unlikely to willingly enter a slugfest with the hard-hitting Hollister boxer.
That could make things interesting.
“I’ve seen pieces of her,” said Jeffries, speaking after coming in at 123 lbs. at the official weigh-in at Seven Feathers. “Philadelphia fighters are a different breed. I’m expecting a tough fight. She’s a boxer, and I’m not crazy about boxers because I have to chase them.”
There is also some concern in the Jeffries camp that Williams is a fighter who likes to walk the line between legal and illegal tactics. Both Jeffries and Anderson said they’d heard Williams has been known to throw elbows and do whatever it takes to win a fight – whether allowed by the rules or not.
The Road Warrior has spent the last two weeks in Vero Beach, Fla. training with Buddy McGirt to prepare for her big summer. In Florida, she shared ring time with McGirt’s other two world champions – Arturo Gatti and Antonio Tarver. She also had a chance to spar with former world champ Stevie Johnson.
“When she got done sparring with Stevie, everybody clapped,” said Anderson, adding that Gatti made a point of taking Jeffries aside during camp to wish her luck.
“Now she’s recharged and she had a good camp, and now we go.”
Jeffries agreed that the two weeks spent with McGirt were rejuvenating.
“It was an unbelievable camp,” she said. “Buddy really tested me this time. It was my best camp down there.”
With Tarver in Memphis for Saturday’s International Boxing Organization (IBO) light heavyweight title fight with Glen Johnson, McGirt will not be able to be in Jeffries’ corner tonight. The legendary trainer and cutman will be replaced by Oregon’s Wally Jurgensen.
“I trust him,” said Anderson. “Kelsey likes him, and we like the way he wraps her hands. You can’t let just anybody wrap your hands.”
Following tonight’s bout, Anderson said he’ll hustle his fighter out the back door and through the kitchens to get back to her room.
Why all the subterfuge?
“They just go crazy for Kelsey up here,” Anderson said. “Her fans are nuts about her and sometimes we’ve got to sneak out the back door to avoid getting mobbed.”
