Champ set to take belt from McCarter in Bakersfield.
GILROY – Kelsey ‘Sweet Power’ Jeffries has been waiting for this fight her entire boxing career. Thursday night at Centennial Gardens in Bakersfield, the 26-year-old state champ will get her world title shot against IFBA World Featherweight champion Layla McCarter.
“I’m excited about this fight. I’m ready to do what I have to,” said Jeffries, who trains out of the Sixth Street Gym in Gilroy. “First I’m going to box her. But if I have to go to war, I’m ready to go to war.”
Jeffries (16-7-1) – who already holds three belts, including the California State Featherweight title – does not want to stop with McCarter (11-7) either.
“I want all the belts. Once I get this one, I’m going to challenge the other world champs at any weight. It’s definitely my goal to unify the belts,” said Jeffries, who turned pro three years ago. “I just know I’m going to win.”
And so does trainer Rick Mello.
“McCarter is going to know what it feels like to get hit by a freight train,” said Mello, full of confidence in Jeffries. “McCarter is not in the same class with Kelsey… It’s just Kelsey’s turn.”
So in the first world championship fight on a card tagged Fight Night at The Tank, Jeffries will get her turn in a 10-round bout. But she has to take the title from a champion – which is never easy.
“She’s tough. She’s a brawler. She’s the champ so I have to give her that much respect,” said Jeffries of McCarter. “Her skills are not as polished. I think she’s going to try to box me and she’s not a boxer. I’m going to have to get on her.”
For Jeffries – who has fought in four 10-round bouts and one eight-round bout – it is somewhat of a homecoming. She was born in Bakersfield – where she’s fought twice in her career – and her mother as well as grandparents still live there.
“‘The Tank’ is my home,” said Jeffries, who’s boxed twice at ‘The Tank’ in San Jose. My mom lives there. She just moved back from here. My grandparents live there, but this is my home and it always will be. I love San Jose. I love ‘The Tank.'”
Jeffries only two losses to righthanders came in world title fights abroad in Europe – where she, as well as Mello, thought she won both times but fell victim to hometown judging.
“If Kelsey just goes out and boxes, and does what she did with Martin and Rosso and Prouder, she shouldn’t have a problem,” Mello said. “Kelsey’s worked very hard for this. She’s anxious to get this one done. She’ll get the title. She’s worked hard for this the last three years.”
McCarter, originally from Spokane, Washington and now fights out of Las Vegas, won the world title two years ago from an aged Sandra Yard and has never relinquished it.
“She’s orthodox, righthander. She’s somewhat rough on the edges from what I’ve seen,” Mello said. “The girls going to get a boxing lesson. If she fights like that, Kelsey is going to tear her up.”
Jeffries last fight in San Francisco was an Oct. 18 six-round unanimous decision over top-ranked contender Jo Jo Wyman – who fought McCarter to a draw before losing to Jeffries.
“I have to box her the first couple of rounds and make her miss and then make her pay. At the end, I’m going to take it to her,” said Jeffries, now sponsored by Southern Cal Pipe Trades. “My concern is – since I’m a crowd pleaser – that I’ll start getting busy fast. That will be OK, too. I’m stronger and have better skills inside.”
But nothing is for certain in the world of pro boxing.
“Anything can happen in a fight, a lucky punch or something like that,” Mello said. “If it goes 10 rounds – which I don’t think it will – we win anyway. We’re not going to lose this fight.”
