Kevin Kelley is unhappy. In his home town, New York, the newspaper adverts, billboards, radio promos and television slots virtually ignore him to blare the name of the new star, Prince Naseem Hamed.
The fact that Kelley has lost only once in 50 professional fights, and could provide the toughest test of Hamed's career to date is overlooked as the boxing hype machine runs at full tilt to build interest in Friday's World Boxing Organisation featherweight title fight at Madison Square Garden.
The cost of the advertising campaign, a mind-numbing £1.8 million is around four times what he will be paid for his night's work and he does not feel obliged to help promoter Frank Warren recoup his money. "He's been a real pain in the arse, and you can quote me," says Warren. "He hasn't shown up for press conferences and photo calls. I reckon he's just pissed off that Naz has been getting all the publicity." Instead, Kelley has been training in seclusion in the Pocono Mountains in the belief that he is the fighter capable of destroying the ambitions of Hamed and his promoter.
Kelley held the World Boxing Council version of the title from 1993 to 1995 and is still recognised as champion by the World Boxing Union, but at 30 is well aware Friday's fight could represent his last moments of significance in boxing's spotlight. He claims wherever he goes and whoever he meets, he is asked why he is only getting second billing and, in a sentiment to echo those of 30 years ago whenever somebody was given the chance to silence Muhammad Ali, please could he knock Hamed out to shut him up.
"My aunt, who is a really religious lady and doesn't speak bad about anybody, called me the other day and said: `Kevin, I saw those commercials on television and he's so arrogant and so nasty. That's not Godlike. You need to give him a beating, he needs it,"' he said.
Hamed has been telling anyone who cares to listen that he will knock Kelley out in the third round or sooner but the Flushing Flash, as he is dubbed in the ring, is anything but intimidated.
"When I fight, I fight with everything that is in me," he said, "I'm going to hit him with everything that I have ever been hit with. When the bell rings, he's going to see me and know that I am out to hurt him seriously."
If Hamed's promotion has been orchestrated to perfection by others, the popular Kelley has had to rely on his gift of the gab and entrepreneurial flair to build his own impressive fan base. Spectators at his early fights were shocked to be handed pencils by Kelley carrying his name. He still does that, but now you can buy lollipops, biscuits, hats, T-shirts and jackets bearing the Flushing Flash logo (a red boxing glove clasping two golden bolts of lightning).
"In short, I have worked my butt off for everything I have," said Kelley with the unspoken suggestion that Hamed had not. He said Naz had been "fighting tuna fishes," and added: "Guys like Oscar De La Hoya and Hamed aren't fighting anybody and people are throwing tons of money at them."
His sense of resentment is clear in his criticism of HBO, the cable television network, which will show the fight in the United States. "I think they're jumping the gun with this guy. They're putting too much interest in a guy who nobody knows, who is not from this city and who is not even from this country."
Kelley's best fighting days could be behind him, and he has not seemed to carry the same threat since losing the WBC title to the Mexican Alejandro Gonzalez but, as Evander Holyfield so eloquently demonstrated against Mike Tyson, it can be a mistake to write off any fighter who burns with a sense of ambition and injustice whatever his age and however great the odds against him.
