Kavanagh pulls no punches, honest appraisal of Gil fight

By Jonny Stapleton

Learning is not a spectator sport and Jamie Kavanagh was certainly a participant of his own boxing education last weekend.

The Golden Boy fighter just about passed the toughest test of his fight apprenticeship drawing with experienced Ramesis Gil on the undercard of Amir Khan’s world title defeat to Lamont Peterson in Washington on Saturday.

However, despite feeling aggrieved the judges didn’t award him the victory Kavanagh remains upbeat and is eager to take the positives from the controversial reverse.

Showing a maturity beyond his 21 years Kavanagh opted against breaking out the violins. Instead the former Crumlin amateur was keen to focus in the lessons learnt and experienced gained in what was the pure definition of a learning fight.

Kavanagh is adamant Saturday’s six round clash will improve him as a fighter and stand him in good stead in the future.

Every fighter wants to win but there seems to be a part of Kavanagh, that would prefer to draw, improve and learn than to pad out his record.

“This fight will stand to me in future. There are big positives for me to take from this fight. I could fight easier guys, but I think I could take more from this guy other than any other opponent I have faced. It was a good fight to watch. I don’t think commentators gave me any props but I don’t mind cause at the end of the day its me that has too make the changes and I will. This will only push and drive me more. I knew he was though and hit hard. He did hit very hard, but I  was the better boxer and I think I showed that and won,” Kavanagh told www.irish-boxing.com.

Kavanagh like many others believe he should have had his hand raised after the final bell, but whilst he believed he should have emerged victorious he was honest enough to admit he wasn’t to pleased with his performance.

The Spanish speaking Dubliner does take some solace from the fact he had to overcome more than just opponent Gil. The Wild Card fighter had a volatile cut and fractured his hand as early as round two, but admirably isn’t putting them forward as excuses.

“I wasn’t happy with my performance. The performance was bad, but there is a lot I can take from it. it was a though fight I knew the guy was coming for the win. He had only lost too top guys and those who beat him had a lot more fights than I had.  I do feel I won. I watched the fight over and over again. I started bad and lost the first round, but I had to deal with a lot. I had a major cut and fractured my hand in the second round.  That’s is  boxing. That is the way it is and despite those things happening we went for the win.”

Faced with a gushing cut for the first time Kavanagh didn’t panic and set his focus on winning and not the spilling blood. He did have to adapt the game plan a little but both he has his team seem proud of how he coped.

“To tell the truth when I get to the corner I use my corner mans eyes as a mirror. However, Sedano my corner man and trainer hide his eyes and a result the cut  from my view well. It bleed a lot but that wasn’t on my mind. All I was thinking of was picking up the win. A lot of fighters would have panicked and rushed a bit but i couldn’t do that I had a bad cut so running into another headbutt or shot wasn’t the plan. I moved and picked the best simple shots I could without getting caught.”

Like most fight fans Kavanagh is now planning for Christmas and going to work. He is back in Spain and enjoying family and healing time.

“I am currently in Spain with my family just being a normal guy for a while. It is nice not training and spending time with the family. Christmas is coming up and I am looking forward too it. I will start training on conditioning and that when my hand feels better and cut heals, maybe in around 4 weeks.”