Kildare's Kelsey hoping for six of the best

Kildare Boxer, Kelsey Leonard will step into the professional ring for the sixth time on this Saturday night to face Slovakian Klaudia Ferenczi as headline bout in an eight-round contest in the JB Promotions Unfinished Business Show in Leopardstown Racecourse. The UNIT 3 Heath and Fitness boxer, who boxes under Coach and Manager, Niall Barrett, will also have stablemates Aodhán Byrne from Kilcullen and Cian Reddy from Laois on the show on Saturday night. 

It’s only been a year since the 26-year-old turned professional and eight months since she first stepped into the ring. Since then, she has fought five times with a 5-0-win record. Saturday’s opponent is much more experienced than Leonard having fought 150 times and only been stopped in ten of those fights.

Kelsey’s fifth successful professional fight was against Elaine Harrison on 4 April in the National Stadium. She stopped the Mayo fighter in the fourth round of the first all-female approved professional fight in Ireland.

Reflecting on the Harrison fight with the Kildare Nationalist this week, Leonard said, “I think she was definitely my toughest opponent. She is a really good technical boxer and I just think that brought out the best in me. It gave me a chance to show a lot more of the skills I have when someone's really trying to come back at you. I think I was able to get really good shots off and have a good performance and then I got a really nice finish and it was a step up.” 

Saturday’s fight is over eight rounds, a distance Leonard has not fought at yet. “Obviously I’ve done it in sparring,” Kelsey tells us. 

"It’s completely different on the night but we hoped to plan eight rounds in the hope that we would be fighting for a title but we weren't able to get that over the line, which was a little bit frustrating. Just to get eight rounds in will be a huge bonus and a huge step as well because then you're eligible for any kind of major title. It will be a little bit different. I've only actually done six rounds twice actually."

Leonard is not concerned about her level of fitness for such step up, however. “I do really trust my fitness, though, so I don't think I'll have to pace myself too much. I'm really lucky that I'm coming off a fight recently so my fitness and strength is still there,” she said. 

“I've been working even harder again. I'm hitting more PB’s and I’m the fittest that I've ever been, which is amazing. It's just trusting in that fitness and trusting in your ability that you're able to get through that. Obviously, I’ve had really good rounds with good spars for this camp and doing ten rounds in camp. I think it's all the mental side, just trusting you've put in the preparation."

After training twice a day since her last fight Kelsey Leonard has now tapered it off to once a day as fight night arrives. She heaps praise on her coach, Niall Barrett for keeping the training sessions fresh. “Niall is very good at that. Some boxing clubs just get the eye work, skipping, shadowboxing and stuff like that, but he'll change it up every single day. You won't know what you're expecting so it's good. He does a lot of brain training and stuff like that, so he keeps it fresh,” she adds enthusiastically. 

Concluding Kelsey Leonard said of Saturday’s fight, “I'm looking forward to getting my eight rounds in, putting on a good performance and just making everyone that's travelling up proud to travel up and support us all.”