Boxing Results: David Avanesyan destroys Josh Kelly

By Boxing News - 02/20/2021 - Comments

By Charles Brun: EBU welterweight champion David Avanesyan (27-3-1, 15 KOs) wore down previously unbeaten Josh Kelly (10-1-1, 6 KOs) in stopping him in the sixth round on Saturday night at the Wembley Arena in London, UK.

Kelly’s trainer Adam Booth threw in the white towel of surrender in the sixth after he’d been knocked down twice in the round. Moments before the second knockdown, Avanesyan, 32, staggered Kelly with a big left hook to the head that caused his legs to completely go.

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Avanesyan then casually strolled up to the bloody and hurt Kelly and poleaxed him with a right to the head. At that point, trainer Booth threw in the towel to save Kelly from being further punished.

It was a good stoppage. Had the match been allowed to continued, Kelly would have likely been really hurt.

Image: Boxing Results: David Avanesyan destroys Josh Kelly

Avanesyan had problems with Kelly’s movement in the first three rounds, but he took over the fight beginning in the fourth. That’s when Avanesyan began going to the body, which Kelly clearly didn’t like. The shots to the breadbasket put Kelly on the run, causing him to look at the referee for help.

Kelly was cut in the back of the head in the third round from an elbow Avanesyan. The shot caused a lot of bleeding. In the fourth, Kelly’s right eye was cut, and he seemed in distress. After the round ended, Kelly’s trainer Adam Booth told him to just win rounds so he would get a victory if the fight were stopped due to the cut.

“I feel very, very good. I waited for a long time for this fight,” said Avanesyan afterward.

It’s unclear where Kelly goes from here. He was no match for Avanesyan once he started walking him down and punishing him with shots. Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn had been hoping to match Kelly up against Conor Benn if he won, but that’s not going to happen now.

Most boxing fans would agree that it wouldn’t be a good idea for Hearn to let Avanesyan face Benn because the Russian fighter will do the exact same thing to him as well. Benn is too green to be put in with a puncher like Avanesyan.

“He was just outmanned,” said Hearn about Kelly after the fight. “It was the end. Sometimes you have to save your fighters from taking necessary punishment. He was too strong.”

Hearn can put Kelly in with Benn. That would be a good domestic-level fight between those two, but Avanesyan is on another level than those two guys. We saw that tonight. Kelly didn’t belong inside the same ring with Avanesyan.