Ringside with the Champ at Impact 210 (Impact210)





Kendall Holt is ranked #4 in the world in his weight class and holds the

WBO Intercontinental Jr. Welterweight title. The champ stopped by

Impact210 to talk about overcoming hardship, his greatest victory and the

toughest competitor he has yet to face.
Impact210: How did you get into boxing?
KH: I got into boxing because my father was a boxer. He and my mother both

loved boxing. They were watching a couple of boxing fights and they

decided if they had boys, that they would box. And here I am, a boxer.
Impact210: Why do you like boxing?
KH: The excitement. It’s similar to when a music artist goes on stage and

hears the roar of the crowd. I just love to perform. I’ve been doing it

since I was seven years old, for about 16 years now. I’m 24.
Impact210: Don’t you find the sport violent?
KH: Actually, it is fun because I got good at it. When I was little, I

didn’t want to do it. When I was 16 or 17, my father let me pull back and

do my own thing. I was absent from it for a few months and I missed it.

The action, the attention. Naturally, I went back to it.
Impact210: Do you think people don’t understand the sport?
KH: It’s a lot people that don’t understand. They think two people are

fighting and one person wins. They think that person is better. They don’t

understand that the way a person fights and the way his opponent fights,

it can actually… like if a guy is a flat-footed fighter and the other

fighter is a mover, the flat-footed fighter, most of the time, will end up

losing. Because the guy that’s moving around is hard to hit and the one

who is standing there is easy to hit. That’s why styles make fights. The

style of the way a person fights creates the action.
Impact210: Have you ever been injured?
KH: The worst injury that I sustained in practice actually was a broken

rib a couple of years ago. It was excruciating. I never felt pain like

that before. I heard it crack. The pain didn’t take affect right away. So

I took a couple more punches and then it hit me.
Impact210: Who are your boxing influences?
KH: Sugar Ray Leonard, Floyd Mayweather, Zab Judah, Roy Jones, guys that

fight similar to the way I fight so I can learn more.
Impact210: What is your training schedule like?
KH: Because boxing is a four season sport, you want to stay in fighting

shape. Because sometimes things come up, a guy gets hurt and they want you

to substitute. You want to stay close to being in shape at all times. You

don’t train as hard all year. A lot of people have different techniques.

There’s no substitute for running because that’s the ultimate stamina

builder. I do 7-8 miles a day when I have a fight scheduled. You get used

to it. It’s very disciplined for a certain amount of time. Right now, me

and my metabolism are good buddies. I have to be disciplined in what I eat

three to four weeks before a fight.
Impact210: Talk about the biggest moments in your career.
KH: Last year, March 26, 2004 I had a fight against Gilberto Reyes on

ESPN. I wasn’t supposed to make the TV cut but I did anyway. I had such a

devastating knockout over Reyes that it was featured on Sports Center the

whole week. So that put me in the spotlight. And then my very next fight I

had a setback, I lost. Then I had to rebuild and seven, eight months

later, after a couple of wins back to back, I got put in the biggest

fight, biggest test of my career against David Diaz. Diaz actually beat

Zab Judah for his Olympic spot. At the time he was undefeated 26-0. He was

an American Olympian. He was rated the #2 boxer in the world. I was 17

wins versus 1 loss, and I really didn’t have the experience he had. I

wasn’t rated among any of the top boxing organizations. A lot of the

boxing experts picked him to beat me in a relatively easy fight, and it

was just the opposite. I beat him in a relatively easy fight because of my

style. I knocked him out. I became rated and after that, I actually won

the championship. That shot me from #9 rated to #7. Then I fought again

and now I’m #4. I fought Jamie Longell, the same guy that challenged Zab

Judah for his championship belt. So I actually took this one from him.
Impact210: In the ring, do you know when you’re going to lose?
KH: The fight I lost I didn’t think I was going to lose. I was riding so

high because of all of the national attention. That loss humbled me. In

the fight with David Diaz, I was winning easy, and then I started slowing

down and I noticed him coming on. I turned it on and knocked him out in

the 8 th round. I cut his eye and ultimately, knocked him out. When you’re

losing, you search for a different strategy. You talk to your corner.

Within that minute rest, you have to come up with a different strategy. We

regroup quickly. It was one fight last December, I was taking a lot of

shots and I had to come out with another strategy and I ended up wining

the fight unanimously.
Impact210: Is your father your trainer?
KH: My father is not my trainer anymore, but he’s always there mentally.

He gives his two cents. My recent trainer, I’ve had him going on three

years. We’re buddies. If he tells me something and it doesn’t feel right,

I tell him. We come on mutual ground. I like him to know how I feel about

certain things. I’m very vocal.
Impact210: Who’d be your toughest competitor?
KH: Mike Tyson, without a doubt.
Impact210: You two have similar backgrounds?
KH: Everybody takes their situation differently. I always had people there

to tell me right from wrong. Some people go left when they should go

right. Just because you know right from wrong doesn’t mean you going to be

right. My mother was in prison for 15 years. I was in and out of foster

homes and group homes. Even when my father got custody of me when I was

seven, I lived with my father for about three years and we were taken away

because of child abuse. I lived with my uncle and his wife didn’t want us

there so we went back into the system for another five years. Then I

patched things up with my father, so when I was 16 I came back to live

with him. A couple of years later I was out on my own. My father spent

time in jail for a lot of assault charges. The time he did spend with us,

by teaching me to box he gave me a way to stay away from the streets, and

he stressed the importance of school. He gave me enough strength to say

that’s not how I want to live. I don’t want to grow up and have my kids

struggling. It was times when we didn’t have lights or food. Boxing was a

way out. I did graduate high school. I passed the Passaic Police Dept.

exam but since boxing was going real well for me, I stayed with it. But if

it doesn’t work out, I can become a police officer. I have something to

fall back on. I was awarded custody of my son about two months ago.
Impact210: What kind of work do you do with the community?
KH: I work with boys and girls clubs. I’m attending an AIDS dinner on

December 1. My aunts have died from AIDS. I’ve been affected. My mother’s

been in jail. My brother’s been in jail. My father. I have uncles in jail.

Whatever a child is going through, I can relate. If he’s being abused, if

he’s in the streets and doesn’t know where to turn. I’m rising above it.