Tallaght’s Richard Kiely to get his shot at world title at BAMMA Dublin
By Stephen Leonard
ONLY two fights into his MMA career and Richie Kiely has seized a shot at the BAMMA World Welterweight title.
The Tallaght man will go up against newly-crowned champion Alex Lohore in what is sure to be a full-capacity show in the 3Arena on Friday, November 10.
Certainly the clinical manner in which he stopped both Keith McCabe and Daniel Olejniczak in his opening two fights, coupled with his antagonistic manner outside the cage, has earned Kiely his crack at the prize.
Indeed, after having just beaten Nathan Jones for the title in the SSE Arena, Wembley earlier in the month, Lohore immediately trained his sights on Kiely, calling out the hard-hitting Dubliner.
“From the moment he called me out, I knew this fight was going to happen” Kiely told Echo.ie
“For BAMMA and for him it makes sense in terms of action and business sense.
“I’m just 2 and 0 so you’re going to have your begrudgers, people like the Terry Brazier brigade. Brazier wants to pick and choose his fights, but I’m stepping up when the opportunity arises. I’m taking the bull by the horns.
“I know I’m seen as a huge underdog for this fight and that this fight is a risk, but it was the same for me against [Keith] McCabe and it was the same against Daniel Olejniczak.
“I’m 100 percent confident, John Kavanagh is 100 percent confident in me and Dave Roche is 100 percent confident in me.
“I wouldn’t take this fight if I didn’t think I would beat him.
“He might feel he’ll come to stand and fight, but I’ve seen everything that Lohore has whereas he’s only seen about 10 percent of my skill sets.
“He’s seen a few jabs and a left hook, but he hasn’t experienced my fire power.
“I’m look to bring in Norman Kelly to work with me as my strike coach. He’s a world class strike coach and I’ll be looking to have him in my corner.
“It’s six weeks to weigh in and I’m in camp. It feels a bit like overkill when I know I’m going to knock him out in a round.
“It’s going to be a huge full-capacity show. I love that. Some people, in that situation, don’t perform, but I feed off the crowd, I feed off being the underdog.
“I’ve been the underdog before and this is no different. He [Lohore] just has a particular skill set and I’ve just got to implement mine.
“It’s just different problem solving and I know that I’ll have an answer for whatever he throws at me” he insisted.
