By Ryan Maquiñana
They have dubbed him “The Nuisance.” Sometimes it’s “The Irish Kid.” Most of the time, his first name will do.
Just don’t call unbeaten lightweight prospect Jamie Kavanagh (8-0, 3 KOs) Scottish, which has become the running joke at the Wild Card Boxing Club after a news report stated as much after a sparring session the Dubliner had with Manny Pacquiao a few days ago.
“Now there’s nothing wrong with being Scottish, but I’m Irish, and I got to keep to my roots,” Kavanagh said with a smile.
Perhaps the flub wasn’t necessarily a sign of disrespect as much as it was Kavanagh’s still-emerging presence on the world boxing scene. As an amateur, he was well-traveled, emigrating from Ireland to Malaga, Spain, where he spent much of his teenage years and amateur career with trainer Sedano Ruiz.
However, after clawing his way to a silver medal at the AIBA Youth World Championships, Kavanagh turned pro, making another international trip to Hollywood and impressing both Freddie Roach and Steven Feder of Standing Eight enough to sign the kid to a managerial contract.
Now 21 years of age and having added Golden Boy as his promoter, Kavanagh has grown as a fighter, especially on the offensive end, where he varied his combinations and mixed speeds like a seasoned veteran in his last outing, a lopsided unanimous decision over Marcos Herrera.
The performance was a far cry from his bout on national television in June of last year, when he struggled through four rounds against Luis Sanchez for his second pro victory.
Kavanagh caught up with BoxingScene to talk about his recent exploits in the ring with Pacquiao, his upcoming Dec. 10 fight on the Amir Khan-Lamont Peterson undercard, as well as the status of his own career, which he hopes will blossom to the point where the details regarding his origin will no longer be questioned.
ON HIS OCT. 28 DATE BEING CANCELLED AND HIS UPCOMING BOUT ON DEC. 10:
“We just came back into camp. We were training for a fight on October 28, but it fell through when the main event got hurt. We couldn’t get a date to replace that, so we’re going to train straight into Amir’s undercard in December.”
ON THE EXTENT OF HIS SPARRING WITH MANNY PACQUIAO SO FAR:
“Yesterday I did four rounds, [Raymundo] Beltran went four, and David Rodela went three. It felt good. I’ve sparred Manny before, but every time you spar him, it’s a different experience. He brings something new to the table every time.”
ON WHAT IT’S LIKE TO SPAR PACQUIAO INITIALLY:
“When you get in on him, his speed can be overwhelming. You get used to it, but the first time you get in there, it’s crazy. He’s got crazy speed.”
ON PACQUIAO’S FAVORITE WEAPONS:
“He brings his right hook over your left jab. He’ll tag you with it if you have a lazy jab. It’s the same weapon he used against Hatton. If you’re not paying attention, he’ll crack you with that.
“He’s so good with that, so you need to watch him for that and the left uppercut on the inside when you fall in. He tries to get you to come in and reach a little bit, and then he’ll throw it. He’ll throw the left uppercut, the right hook, and then he’ll take an angle and attack again. He’s so good at giving you angles.”
ON A RECENT REPORT THAT SAID HE WAS KNOCKED DOWN TWICE BY PACQUIAO:
“The first time we got in, he caught me on the ropes, and the ropes were loose. They went back a little bit and my head went through the ropes. That’s all that happened. I saw that one of my Twitter followers saw me on the Filipino news, saying that Manny knocked me down twice, but also that I was Scotch.
“I looked on the internet and saw it, and I told Freddie, ‘I don’t mind them saying he put me down twice, because I know that myself that he didn’t put me down.’ Freddie said, ‘Yeah, your head went out of the ring twice, but they actually said that?’ I said, ‘Yeah, and the worst of all is that they called me Scottish.’ Again, there’s nothing wrong with being Scottish, or Scottish people, but I’m Irish.”
ON HIS PROGRESSION BETWEEN PREPARING PACQUIAO FOR JOSHUA CLOTTEY AND JUAN MANUEL MARQUEZ:
“I sparred him a couple days for the Clottey fight, and that was last year before I had any professional fights. This time, it’s Marquez, which is more suited to my style. I’m not really like either, but Marquez is a little more the same as me as far as the styles, I guess.
“As far as myself, I’ve had eight fights now. I sparred Manny, sparred Amir Khan. I pick my shots now, and my footwork’s a lot better, and I’m more of a pro than an amateur now.”
ON HIS IMPROVEMENT AS A FIGHTER IN GENERAL WHEN COMPARING HIS LAST OUTING (UD6 OVER MARCOS HERRERA) AND HIS LACKLUSTER SECOND PRO BOUT (UD4 OVER LUIS SANCHEZ):
“The other day, my coach Sedano Ruiz sat down with me and showed me that fight on YouTube and said, ‘Don’t you see a difference with how far you’ve come along?’ Obviously, you feel it in the ring, but when you see it and compare past fights with now, you see the difference.
“I don’t rush as much, I sit down on my punches, use my angles, everything. As far as throwing a lot of different punches, from the body to the head, stepping around guys, it comes a lot easier to do that in the ring more and more.”
ON WHETHER MOVING DOWN TO LIGHTWEIGHT FROM JUNIOR WELTERWEIGHT TO START HIS PRO CAREER HAS MADE A DIFFERENCE:
“I was fighting at 140 [pounds] in the amateurs, so we weren’t sure what we would do in the pros. I’m just training more frequently, eating better, being away from certain temptations like eating late at night have made making weight a lot easier. I could make 130 pounds, but I don’t think I could make it in future fights, so we’re going to try to develop into a strong 135.
“That’s the problem being 21 years old. If I fight now at 130, and I win a small regional title, I won’t be able to defend it, and I’ll have to move up to 135, which won’t be good for the body. Now I walk around at 143, 144, especially because of that fight that fell through on the 28th of October in Orange County. We’ll keep training and training, and right around fight night on December 10, we’ll make it down to 135 or 136, whatever it is.”
ON HAVING MOST OF HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS HALF A WORLD AWAY IN EUROPE:
“My girlfriend’s still back overseas at the moment. She was thinking about coming over after Christmas. If it doesn’t work, we can’t put any more pressure on our relationship, but yeah, you miss your family, you miss friends, but you adapt to it more. You know the way it is.
“The time difference is crazy. When I wake up at six in the morning to run, it’s their afternoon, like three o’clock in the day, like a nine-hour difference. I’ll speak to her then before training, then after, so you really got to get your hours in and schedule your time right.
“Each time we come to the U.S. to train, we’ll be there three months at a time. She’ll come, my family will come, so that’s great to see them. In the end, it strains our relationship, but she understands, and she knows we have to work.”
ON HIS GROWING FAN SUPPORT:
“I appreciate all the fans who have been contacting me here at Wild Card, on Facebook or on Twitter (@JamieKavanagh90), in America, in California, in Ireland, Spain, New York, Wales, they’ve all been good. I’m thankful for all the support they give me.”
Ryan Maquiñana is the boxing correspondent at Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, and Ring Magazine’s Ratings Advisory Panel. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com, check out his blog at www.maqdown.com or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.