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"What Crossroads?" Asks Kendall
Holt
"What crossroads?" asks defiant former WBO Light
Welterweight World Champion Kendall Holt when asked if his
next fight could make or break his career.
"After I beat Julio Diaz, I'll back in the top five in the
world!"
Holt (26-4, 14 KOs), who faces former IBF Lightweight
Champion Diaz tonight in the main event of the Gary Shaw
Productions and Thompson Boxing event at the Chumash Casino
Resort in Santa Ynez, California, and live on ESPN Friday
Night Fights, does have a point.
It is a stretch to say a fighter rated #8 WBC, #10 WBA, #15
IBF and #8 WBO, who was considered one of the best junior
welterweights in the world, and had the consensus #1 fighter
in the division on the floor less than two years ago, will
be finished if he loses one more fight.
Still anyone who saw his performance against South Africa's
Kaizer Mabuza in 2010 might feel differently.
Holt looked like a shadow of himself, laying on the ropes
taking punishment without firing many of the flashy,
powerful combinations that have become his stock and trade.
So what's going to be different?
"My preparations have been totally different for this fight.
I have corrected my problems with balance and improved my
leverage. Count on a faster and harder-hitting Kendall Holt
than you've ever seen before."
Holt says he takes nothing away from opponent Diaz, but
doesn't foresee having any problems with him. "I respect
Julio. He's a tough veteran and a world champion. He'll do
what fighters always try to do to me, which is to put
pressure and go to the body, but I have an answer for that:
power. I'm going to be hitting so hard he won't be able to
take it."
Despite what the experts are saying, Kendall Holt isn't
boxing tonight to prove he's not finished. Tonight's fight
will be about getting the fighter he truly wants back into
the ring.
"I'm going to beat Timothy Bradley in a rematch and then
fight him again in trilogy. That's what I'm going to do."
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