By Jeff Aranow: Welterweight prospect Josh Kelly (8-0, 6 KOs) crushed replacement opponent Walter Fabian Castillo (13-3, 3 KOs) by a 1st round knockout on Saturday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
Kelly, 24, put Castillo down on the floor with a hard shot. After the 25-year-old Argentinian Castillo got back to his feet, Kelly landed a series of shots that led to the fight being stopped. Kelly showed no respect of Castillo in flurrying on him every chance he could get in the fight. Kelly had no respect for Castillo’s power.
Kelly did a good job of getting out of the way of Castillo’s shots when he did attempt to hit him. Kelly isn’t a big knockout puncher, but he didn’t have resistance from Castillo and that made it easy for him.
After the fight, it was confirmed that Kelly’s next fight will be against former WBA ‘regular’ welterweight champion David Avanesyan (23-3-1, 11 KOs) on December 8 on the undercard of Kell Brook vs. Michael Zerafa on Sky Sports and DAZN at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, England. Kelly’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing confirmed that he’ll be fighting the 30-year-old Avanesyan next on December 8 on the undercard of Brook-Zerafa on Sky Sports.
“I feel as though I’m finished at this sort of level,” said Kelly. “I’m waiting for the name, and I’m ready to go. I’ll be ready for December 8.”
Avanesyan isn’t the ideal opponent for Kelly to fight to give him preparation to get Kelly ready for the better fighters in the welterweight division. Avanesyan has lost two of his last three fights since 2017. Avanesyan has suffered losses to Egidijus Kavaliauskas and Lamont Peterson. Earlier in Avanesyan’s career, he was beaten by Andrey Klimov in 2009. Avanesyan did beat Shane Mosley two years ago by a 12 round unanimous decision in 2016.
It would have been better if Kelly had fought Avanesyan tonight, as he didn’t get much of a fight out of Castillo. That was a straight up mismatch any way you want to look at it.
2016 Olympian Kelly is seen as a future world champion at welterweight. That’s what his promoter Eddie Hearn is hoping will be the case. However, for that to happen, Kelly might need to wait out fighters like Errol Spence Jr., Terence Crawford and Shawn Porter until they get old. Right now, those fighters are probably too talented for Kelly, and it might end badly for him if he were to face any of them.