Josh Kelly v Jay Byrne
On Saturday 15th April, Josh Kelly will make his his professional career debut on the undercard of headliner, Ricky Burns’ (41-5-1,14KOs), World Super-Lightweight unification fight against Julius Indongo at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow on Saturday night (April 15).
23-year-old Kelly, from Sunderland, fought in the Rio Olympics last year, but was disappointed when he fell short of winning a medal. He lost to Daniyar Yeleussinov from Kazakhstan, who later went on to win the Gold. He decided, soon after the Olympics, that his future lay in the professional game.
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He spoke with “Showcase Sports” last year, saying that he takes a lot of influence from prior Olympians in boxing, such as; Anthony Joshua (18-0,18KOs); Anthony Ogogo (11-1,7KOs) and Thomas Stalker (11-2-3,2KOs). His “massive inspiration” though, is from Tony Jeffries (9-0-1,6KOs), who is a Sunderland man himself. Also known as “Jaffa” or “The Mighty Mackem”, Jeffries fought in the 2008 Olympics and came close, but was defeated by Irish man Kenneth Egan. Jeffries went onto pursue his professional career in 2009 and was victorious in all but one of his ten bouts. He last fought in 2011, in an eight-round fight against Paul Morby (6-20-1,0KOs) and won the bout on points. Jaffa has since retired and now runs a gym in America.
Kelly who is now working with David Haye’s (28-3,26KOs) former trainer Adam Booth. Kelly told Sky Sports, “I’m learning every day with Adam and I’m buzzing to be making my debut on such a huge night”.
2017 lets be having it ? pic.twitter.com/gYmDLOTX9i
— Josh Kelly (@JOSHPBK) February 8, 2017