All fighters progress differently. Some take to professional boxing like a duck to water, effortlessly advancing though the levels. It takes others a bit longer to round out into the final, finished product.
Josh Kelly (15-1-1, 8 KO’s) burst onto the scene in 2017. As a confident Olympian blessed with outstanding reflexes, ‘The Pretty Boy’ was able to frustrate and punish his early opponents.
A hard fought draw with Ray Robinson in 2019 exposed a few cracks and fissures in Kelly’s game but a ruthless David Avanesyan opened them up completely, stopping Kelly in six rounds two fights later.
Kelly and his trainer, Adam Booth, continued their work and Kelly is now beginning to reproduce the type of form he showed earlier in his career against hardened, tough operators. Last December he outboxed the rugged Troy Williamson to win the British super welterweight title and followed it up with a dominant victory over previously unbeaten Argentine, Gabriel Corzo. Saturday night’s third round stoppage of the heavy handed Placido Ramirez was his most complete performance for some time.
Many will argue that the jury remains out on the new and improved Kelly because Williamson, Corzo and Ramirez failed to put him under any kind of pressure but maybe a more accurate way of describing it is that Kelly didn’t let them.
Booth, believes that things have finally clicked.
“It’s a long career and it’s pleasing for me to see Josh start to show the things we’ve worked on since day one,” he told SecondsOut.
“Not the things that necessarily came naturally to him in terms of having that defensive I.Q and tricky style. He’s actually got an immensely high defensive I.Q but now he’s got unpredictable, world class power to go with it as well. For me, that jab especially was what I enjoyed most.”
One man who would subject the new and improved Kelly to a severe pressure test is James Metcalf. The Liverpudlian hasn’t boxed since beating Dennis Hogan for the IBO title in May and Kelly became the number one contender for the belt by beating Ramirez. A fight between the two would earn the winner a deserved shot at one of the division’s big names but Booth would be more than happy for his man to jump straight into world class.
Kelly is in line for a mandatory shot at the WBO’s 154lb champion, Tim Tszyu, and put his name firmly in the mix with the usual list of suspects who operate in and around the junior middleweight division in Britain. Once Christmas is out of the way, Booth would happily begin preparations for a fight with Chris Eubank Jnr, Conor Benn or Kell Brook.
"We tried to make Metcalf for this one but it didn’t happen,” he said. “ I think he’s IBO number one, WBO number one and there are some huge potential domestic clashes to be made as well so let’s see what 2024 brings. Josh is ready. He’s ready for these big events and to show on the biggest stage what he’s about.
“Any of them. Any of them now. He beats them all.”
