Kenty was raised in Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Linden McKinley High school, where he played on the reserve football team his sophomore year.
In 1980, Kenty captured the WBA Lightweight Title with a TKO over Ernesto España, becoming Emanuel Steward's first world champion, and the first world champion from Detroit since Joe Louis decades earlier.
Kenty and Thomas Hearns both won WBA belts together and became known as the Motor City Cobras.
Kenty defended his belt three times including against Vilomar Fernandez,[1] before losing it to Sean O'Grady in 1981,[2] and retired in 1984.
His only other loss in 31 fights came at the hands of fellow Texan, Roberto Elizondo, by a second round technical knockout when the bout was stopped after Kenty felt ill during the contest.