THE CANADIAN PRESS
Paul Kelly’s inspiration is plain to see.
A tattoo, freshly inked on the inside of his bicep, reads Phoebe Rose in honour of his 2 1/2-year-old daughter.
The 26-year-old English lightweight will be wearing another reminder of his daughter when he faces off Friday against Donald (Cowboy) Cerrone at the UFC 126 weigh-in in Las Vegas. Their fight is set for Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on the undercard of Anderson Silva’s middleweight title defence against Vitor Belfort.
Kelly (12-3) likes to wear a necklace of rosary beads — which he takes off when he steps on the scales since every ounce counts — at weigh-ins. Glue to the back is a penny his daughter found when she first started crawling.
"That’s my lucky charm," Kelly explained. "Every time you’ll see me at a fight, you’ll see me kissing the penny, kissing the penny. That’s a little reminder of what it’s all for and who’s back at home waiting for me."
Kelly’s cornermen are only too aware of what makes their fighter tick. After Kelly took a devastating spinning back kick on already injured ribs from German Denis Siver at UFC 105 in November 2009, his corner was quick to react.
"That kick would have knocked the devil out, but one of my teammates shouted from the corner ‘For the baby,"’ Kelly recalled. "The baby’s a lot of inspiration."
Kelly lost the Siver fight soon after. But he got up from the kick.
Fourteen months later, Phoebe Rose is still inspiring her dad.
"She’s a really good kid, she’s so polite. All she ever says is ‘Daddy I love you.’ She actually speaks better than me," said Kelly, whose Liverpudlian accent can be a test for some.
Kelly won’t be showing his loving side against Cerrone, a former bull rider and WEC title contender who has stepped in for injured Canadian fighter Sam (Hands of Stone) Stout.
The 27-year-old Cerrone, who lives on a ranch near Albuquerque, N.M., is a prickly Muay Thai fighter who has proved to be a handful for all his opponents.
"He’s rangy, he’s very rangy," Kelly said of the six-footer. "He’s got better standup than my past opponents. He’s very well-rounded.
"I think he talks a lot of trash, which is a little disrespectful, but he’ll learn his lessons."
So has Cerrone targeted Kelly with his pre-fight talk?
"I think a little bit. I’m a little too long in the tooth now to get sucked in by it. Even though I’m still only a baby in the sport, I’ve been around for a while now."
"Come fight night, I’m still coming out the same as I always do."
Cerrone (13-3 with one no contest) has apologized for saying in an interview he didn’t even know who Kelly was. He later clarified his remarks in a Fighters Only magazine video, saying he didn’t mean any disrespect — he just doesn’t follow the sport and spends his time away from training looking after the ranch.
"I didn’t know who Paul Kelly was, I now know," he said. "I’m looking forward to the fight."
Cerrone went on to compliment Kelly’s punches — before calling them: "Things I need to be aware of but not scared of."
"I’m not real worried about him. He’s going to come out and throw down and I like to throw down."
Kelly is a shark in the cage, always moving forward, always looking to engage. As he points out, "I’m not scared of getting punched."
He is 5-3 in the UFC but is looking to string a few victories together after a win-lose-win-lose-win run since moving to lightweight.
"It’s been the weight cut. It’s been getting down to that 155," he explained.
The five-foot-nine Kelly, who believes he was never quite big enough for welterweight despite going 2-1 as a 170-pounder in the UFC, says he thinks he has finally conquered the weight cut.
Kelly normally walks around at 185 to 186 pounds. Fight night, he expects to be around 180.
He was 169 pounds three weeks ago. In the past, he said, he has been that weight the day before the weigh-in.
The cut has been so tough that he fainted in the leadup to the weigh-in the last two fights. He made weight both times but felt so poorly he couldn’t eat the rest of the day.
"It’s just been a difficult task for me, but this time I think I’ve got it on the money. I’m hoping I’ve got it on the money and then I can be a little bit more explosive and a little bit more 100 mile an hour."
He credits his successful weight management this time to the fact that he came home after beating T.J. O’Brien at UFC 123 in November, only to learn a week later that he had another fight.
"I got straight back in the gym, I didn’t have time to enjoy the luxuries of life. I’ve had no Christmas."
Kelly has no complaints about the fighter’s lifestyle, even if it took him from Liverpool to San Diego to Abu Dhabi to Detroit last year.
"I just take it as just what it is. There’s point in moaning or bitching about it. Just get on with it," he said.
"I mean everyone else has to do it, don’t they? Everyone else has to make that big weight cut or whatever. Everyone else has to travel. Given a choice, I’d sooner fight on my doorstep, it’s easier for all my family and friends to come and watch. But it is what it is. I’m happy to be employed. I love my job. I wouldn’t change it for the world."
Kelly stayed in Windsor prior to the Detroit fight with O’Brien, the guest of Canadian friends he had met at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi last April.
A former member of the Wolfslair gym, Kelly now trains alongside Terry Etim, Paul Taylor and Paul Sass at Liverpool’s Team Kaobon.
The split with Wolfslair was not pleasant, although Kelly prefers not to air the dirty laundry.
There was a lawsuit, which Kelly says he won, and the fighter went so far as to have the prominent Wolfslair tattoo on his back redone to obscure the name.
"It’s behind me now, it’s done and dusted," he said of the dispute.
"Where I am now, it’s a team," he added.
