Kevin Kelley & The Low Countries

[Taansend]

Between 1989 & 1993 Kevin Kelley fought NINE time in Holland and Belgium.

Can anyone shed any light on why he was popular there/liked to fight there?

I see that his first bout (in Holland) was against a bloke with a 19-3 record who was on a roll of 6 or 7 wins (who actually ended up with a terrible record) but every other bout was against nobodies, some of them even making their debuts or having 1-12 records.

After 1993 he never fought outside of the US again. Maybe he had a thing for clogs

[gilgamesh]

Between 1989 & 1993 Kevin Kelley fought NINE time in Holland and Belgium.

Can anyone shed any light on why he was popular there/liked to fight there?

I see that his first bout (in Holland) was against a bloke with a 19-3 record who was on a roll of 6 or 7 wins (who actually ended up with a terrible record) but every other bout was against nobodies, some of them even making their debuts or having 1-12 records.

After 1993 he never fought outside of the US again. Maybe he had a thing for clogs

That happens sometimes. Ike Quartey and Winky Wright also regularly fought on cards in France and thereabouts before they rose to fame in the States.

I guess the Boxing audiences in those countries like fighters of a certain style.

[Taansend]

Between 1989 & 1993 Kevin Kelley fought NINE time in Holland and Belgium.

Can anyone shed any light on why he was popular there/liked to fight there?

I see that his first bout (in Holland) was against a bloke with a 19-3 record who was on a roll of 6 or 7 wins (who actually ended up with a terrible record) but every other bout was against nobodies, some of them even making their debuts or having 1-12 records.

After 1993 he never fought outside of the US again. Maybe he had a thing for clogs

That happens sometimes. Ike Quartey and Winky Wright also regularly fought on cards in France and thereabouts before they rose to fame in the States.

I guess the Boxing audiences in those countries like fighters of a certain style.

Thanks for the response, Mr Mesh....

I remember Winky fighting in Europe/UK a fair amount but it was generally against decent opposition.

Same with the Canadian chap Donovan Boucher who had a brilliant run in the UK beating some very good fighters including my own favourite, Kirkland Laing.

And Quartey was promoted by a French group & fought 11 out of 12 fights there, including winning the title & defending it.

But what makes Kelley's EuroTrip a bit weird is that it was not constant & not part of an obvious promotion plan. He just popped over to those countries to fight debutants & complete no-hopers every third fight or so.

I just wondered if anyone had any specific info......

[Taansend]

Ha! Just found out. His manager was also Regilio Tuur's manager so whenever he went over there for a Tuur bout he took Kevin along for a stay busy bout.

http://ringtv.craveonline.com/news/3913 ... vin-kelley

The shite opposition thing was bothering me. It was a long way to fly to fight a 1-12 fighter.

[Bodyshot3]

Namibia's Harry Simon did a very big chunk of his fighting in the UK as well......most of his fights in Namibia came late in the day.

Not sure why the UK featured so strongly for Harry because the South African fight scene has always been pretty healthy....plenty of shows and boxing is supported by good local TV money as well. I presume Fwank or someone else had a stake in Harry at some point?

[Counter-puncher]

Funnily enough as soon as I saw Holland, that era, I thought of Regilio Tuur.

Anyone remember his fight against Tony Pep? Crazy contrast, it was like a cartoon or videogame, the stocky muscled Tuur and the impossibly tall gangly Pep.