Australiensaren Daniel Kelly ses oftast som underdog men det är en roll som han trivs med.
Den australiensiske mellanviktaren Daniel Kelly (12-1) har under större delen av karriären setts som en underdog. Trots detta har han endast en förlust under hela sin karriär och den kom mot Sam Alvey (29-8, 1 NC) i Adelaide förra året. Sedan dess har han vunnit tre matcher i rad, nu senast på UFC Fight Night 101: Whittaker vs. Brunson i Melbourne mot Chris Camozzi (24-11). Det är inte alla som skulle tycka att det var så kul att vara underdog men Kelly ser inte det som något problem, snarare tvärtom.
“I think I’ve shown now that just about every fight I have to dig deep to get over the line,” sade Kelly till media efter vinsten i helgen (via BloodyElbow.com). “I might not be the most skillful guy in a whole heap of areas, but I make up for it in the capacity to push forward. And I take a little bit of damage and keep going. That was no different today. I was very tired at the end of this fight, but it was fine. Except for [points at cut]… this is more cosmetic than anything. He didn’t hurt me on the feet at all. He didn’t kick as much as I thought he would. His jab was always in my face, but it wasn’t damaging at all. The elbows obviously caused a lot of the damage. And I think I hit him a lot with my cross. So, I think I won and made him more worried standing than he expected. I think that surprised him a little bit.”
Precis som många andra så har han sina kritiker. Det är en del som pekar på hans ålder och detta fick han besvara även denna gång. Han har inga planer på att lägga ner MMA-karriären då han känner att kroppen fortfarande tillåter honom detta. Men när kroppen väl börjar säga ifrån så är det dags för honom att lägga handskarna på hyllan.
“There’s no ceiling. There’s no ceiling at all. And guys in the media, some of them say, ‘He should retire. He should do this and that.’ Even after my last fight. There’s no ceiling. We’ll keep going, I keep improving. My striking’s improving, I came to it late. Everything’s going along okay. I’ve said before, as long as my body holds up I’ll keep going forward. I’m on a 3-fight win streak now. Everything’s going alright. They’re exciting fights, so no ceiling.”
Eftersom han är nöjd med att vara en underdog så hoppas han att alla fortsätter att underskatta honom. Han tänker fortsätta att förvåna sina kritiker.
“Look, I’m older. I’m 39. Apparently I move like a robot and someone who can’t strike. Camozzi’s what… That was his 18th fight in the UFC? And I was as comfortable in there as he was. So, I hope they keep underestimating me and keeping me the underdog. I’m happy with that. And if I keep fighting better guys, it’s going to happen. Every time I come up against someone, they’re going to say, ‘Ugh, I don’t know how he still keeps doing it!? Oh, there’s some kind of mystery. What’s going on?’ And that’s fine with me. Just keep making me the underdog and I’ll keep carrying on.”
