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Craig Kelly: A Closer Look at the Scottish Journeyman Fighter

CraigKelly1(2)By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart (At Ringside)

Whilst following the fighters who have managed to get to the top of their game is always a great thing, for me the fighters who fill the bills in the small halls, the entertainers who manage it with little fanfare are the ones I love. It fascinates me because I do understand why you would continue in a sport that gave you the chance of being in a hospital bed or looking like a fearsome freak? Even though I have never laced a glove, I believe that I know why so many do.

Over the last few months I have got to know 3 exponents of the sweet science who are based here in Scotland and have very different careers. There is the young and new fighter that many think shall be a future champion, a former kick boxing world champion who dreams of world glory and entertains whenever his mouth is opened, or his fists raised (More of them to come). There is also the honest guy who gives the Mexican style to a Scottish accent every time he gets into a ring.

In fact, if there is a more honest fighter than Craig Kelly 9-9-1, 2 KO’s, I am yet to meet him. I have seen Craig fight twice and on both occasions it has been blood, guts and a different result when it came to glory. And yet when I caught up with him recently his enthusiasm was undiminished. This was a guy who loved his sport. The thing was, his last fight had been a defeat. I expected a fighter who wanted to reflect even talk of not getting back in the ring, I expected him to be hurt, even depressed.

“That fight really upset me.” Hold the back page? Kelly had gone in and lost to Stefan Sanderson 2-0, 1 KO and as you can gather from his record his opponent was no big game fighter. “I felt I hadn’t done enough and the guy across from me was just so much bigger.” The issue of weights and differences from weigh ins to fights has been much debated – especially after Khan/Canelo – but in the smaller halls and fight nights it must be a factor on how boxers approach things.

The Mexican part of Kelly is his unrelenting style – “You have to hit me or move me.” It makes for an exciting night. The first fight I saw was all out war and this one was just the same. Kelly ended up on the canvas at the end of the 6th round. The war of attrition ended with him losing but it could have been different earlier in the fight…

“I had hit him a fair few times and he had wobbled but he just kept coming back. I did try at times to box him but there was little point as he was just as determined as I was to punch through and try and win it. In the end it just became about trading punches. I did think at the end of the third round that he was done as he was holding and leaning on me but I just couldn’t get him to stop and give in. In the end it was me that had to give in because I ran out quicker than he did. I wasn’t going to take any steps back.”

One of the issues that we discussed was that Kelly is not a full time fighter. He works construction and training has to fit round feeding a family. The commitment that he shows to the sport will be supported, sometimes for some fighters reluctantly, by partners and families that will shake their head at such dedication and struggle to sit ringside as their loved ones get hammered. Of course fighters have to sell tickets and getting their loved ones down to cheer them on ironically prolongs their sporting lifetime; adding to the misery of watching your loved one get hurt again and again. But boxing becomes so much part of a person that to take it out of them would take major corrective surgery.

That is part of the joy of following a fighter like Craig Kelly. He continues to look for fights that will entertain and will bring the best out of him – for his fans. I am one of them and within 24 hours of the fight ending, Kelly was on twitter calling out a previous opponent. No matter who gets in the ring with him next, I want to be there. As a fan, as an admirer and as a writer. After all this is a story of ordinary folk, with extraordinary dedication in an exceptional sport; mundane for boxing I know…

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