Richard Kiely | Bellator MMA/Lee Hamilton- Cooper
The Irishman is looking to bounce back from a loss to ‘MVP’ against George Hardwick in a 180-pound contracted weight matchup.
Richard Kiely hit the jackpot when he was given the opportunity to take on Michael ‘Venom’ Page in his home country after only four professional fights. However, from that point on, nothing went to plan.
The bout served as the co-main event last September and grabbed the attention of the fans due to the pair’s dislike for one another. When the cage door closed, either ‘MVP’ would steamroll Kiely (3-2) as many expected, or the Irishman would pull off a monumental upset. Unfortunately for Kiely, the former occurred and ‘MVP’ stopped him with a highlight-reel flying knee halfway through the first round. It left many fans uttering ‘I told you so’, but Kiely knows he went into that fight majorly handicapped so he was in no way capable of showing the full range of his skills.
“I competed with a herniated disk in C6 and C7, so it impinged my brachial nerve,” discussed Kiely. “It was probably the worst injury I’ve ever had as it cut off all the power to my right arm. I was doing positional sparring with Johnny Walker about eight weeks out from the fight and he spiked me on my neck. That’s how it happened. I was supposed to get surgery on it but I declined in order to take part in the MVP fight even though my doctors strongly recommended me not to compete. It was too big of an opportunity to turn down and the money was good. A chance like that may not have come around again. There was potential for long-term nerve damage if I didn’t get the surgery but I pushed ahead.”
“I regret more that the injury happened rather than battling through and fighting,” continued Kiely. “What I can say is that I will never fight again with that level of injury. During the fight, you could see that my movement was severely curtailed, and I was as stiff as a board. I remember throwing a kick and it was like getting tasered. When he was striking me on the ground, my neck and arm were hurting bad. I was covering up but the shock of the strikes going down my neck was extremely painful.
“In the lead up to the fight, I was being deliberately antagonistic because I knew walking into the contest, the only chance I had was to catch him with a left hook as he came in. However, he kept his distance so that opportunity didn’t present itself. Even now, I don’t regret taking the fight but it still pisses me off and it stung because I think that in full health, we’d have a great fight. I definitely know that I could knock him out.”
Leading up to that bout, many criticized Bellator for booking the pair due to the difference in experience between the welterweights, and were writing off Kiely straight away. Although ‘MVP’ had more than three times as many fights as his Irish counterpart, Kiely has an established kickboxing background, has accolades in kung fu and competed for a title in BAMMA. He also trains at SBG Ireland so his head coach, John Kavanagh, wouldn’t have encouraged Kiely to take the fight if he didn’t think he had a chance of winning. It really annoyed ‘The Face’ that some were suggesting he didn’t deserve that opportunity, which is why the way he ended up performing still gets to him.
“It was probably the most frustrating aspect of the fight that I didn’t get to show what I could do,” explained Kiely. “These armchair pundits, who think they are experts, almost feel as though they are validated because of how the fight ended. I don’t really give a s—t what they think. It’s more so for myself as I know I didn’t perform to my true capabilities.”
This weekend’s card – which takes place inside the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland – was hit hard by injuries a few weeks ago when James Gallagher and Peter Queally had to pull out of their respective, highly-anticipated bouts. The majority of fan interest revolved around those two fights so the show became a little lackluster in their absence. Kiely is unsure if Bellator planned for him to be on the card all along or whether they called him to add a little more name value due to the pullouts which impacted the event.
Kiely revealed that Bellator ‘weren’t best pleased’ that he walked into his fight against ‘MVP’ with a serious injury, which is a position that he totally understands. However, he mentioned that they immediately used him on advertisements as they know he attracts a crowd. This is partly because of his outspoken nature, which he won’t be dialing back on in spite of his previous outing – that’s simply who he is. However, he won’t show that side of his personality too much leading up to Saturday night but plans to talk to Bellator about a few issues on his mind after the fact.
“I won’t be outspoken for this fight because I don’t need to be,” stated Kiely. “I’m just going to focus on myself and then after this fight, Bellator and myself need to sit down in order to see where we are at. They use me on promotional material now to generate interest in the show. I’m still one of the biggest draws in Europe and one of the most exciting fighters on this card. I can understand their frustrations, but I’m frustrated with them too. We’ll see how it goes but I am outspoken and I’m not going to change that for anyone.”
For his third fight with the promotion, Kiely takes on Bellator debutant, George Hardwick, this weekend on the preliminary card. All of his injuries have cleared up and he feels healthy heading into his comeback. Hardwick (4-1) has the same amount of MMA experience as Kiely and has gone the distance in four of his five contests. Kiely has never heard the final horn and has won all three of his victories by TKO. He won’t underestimate his opponent but thinks Hardwick’s style may play into his hands in front of a partisan crowd.
“Hardwick is a solid opponent and he puts his combinations together well,” said Kiely. “He is good with the leg kicks and has a good engine but he stands in the pocket which means he will be putting himself in the firing line for me. It will be interesting to see if he does that but it wouldn’t surprise me if he goes for the takedown like they all do. They try and stand until they are hit and then they dive in. He’s a good opponent to have for a comeback fight but I predict I will knock him out. All I need is one opening and then it will be an early night for George!”
The Bellator Dublin preliminary card can be viewed live and free around the world on the Bellator MMA YouTube channel at 4:30pm GMT on Saturday evening. Fans in the US and Canada can tune in from 11:30amET/10:30c.