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Kimbrough returns to local boxing scene
Kevin Gorman can be reached via e-mail or 412-320-7812.
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That will change tonight when the U.S. Amateur National Champion takes on Donnie Hanon as part of an eight-bout pro-am card starting at 7:30 p.m. at The Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort’s Grande Ballroom in Chester, W.Va.
Tickets are $20 for reserved, $10 for general admission.
Kimbrough's trainer, Tom Yankello, has advice for those who want to see the devastating overhand right that has put Kimbrough on track for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece: Watch closely.
“It’s real short, and he hides it behind a jab,” said Yankello, who also is co-trainer to International Boxing Federation lightweight champion Paul Spadafora. “If he picks his head up and Verquan knocks him on the chin, he’s going to sleep. He’s knocked out about seven guys with that punch.
“No one’s going to be able to see it. If you see it once, it’s over.”
If Hanon sees it, Kimbrough’s first local feature bout will end quickly. Hanon, 29, is a former Pennsylvania Golden Gloves champion and national qualifier now fighting out of the Midway Boys Club in Connellsville.
They will follow amateur boxing rules with four, two-minute rounds.
Not that Kimbrough is counting on a short fight.
“I’m not expecting a knockout,” Kimbrough said. “If it comes, it comes. I’m going to fight the way I always fight: with style — be pretty.”
Kimbrough hasn’t fought locally in nearly two years, not since a little-publicized bout against former Golden Gloves champion Monty Clay at the Northgate Boxing Club in Bellevue. Clay, 21, a 126-pounder from Rankin, now serves as a training and sparring partner for Kimbrough.
“He continues to progress,” Clay said. “He’s an exceptional fighter, a blessed fighter. He’s blessed with skills, with style. He’s got a whole arsenal. It’s fun to watch him fight. He’s exciting, and that’s what you want.
“He likes to show off. And he’s good at it.”
Since his last local fight, Kimbrough has elevated himself to the top of amateur boxing.
In April, he won the U.S. National Championship in Las Vegas and the U.S. Challenge in Colorado Springs, Colo., to earn the top ranking at 132 pounds. In June, he beat France’s Gillaume Salingue before losing to Germany’s Harun Sipahi to take silver at the Four Nations tournament in Laval, France.
“I think he’s in another stratosphere since his last local fight,” Yankello said. “A lot can happen between ages 17 and 19. What I think he’s improved the most is his defense. He’s tremendously slick.”
Kimbrough, a 5-foot-6, 132-pounder, was dubbed “the star of USA Boxing” and compared to Sugar Ray Leonard by trainer Emanuel Steward, USA Boxing’s national director of coaching.
And Kimbrough is looking forward to making his opponent miss as much as he is making him pay.
“I don’t plan on getting hit,” Kimbrough said. “I don’t plan on taking too many punches, maybe one a round.”
Maybe less, if Kimbrough lands his signature punch.
