Nothern Ireland's Damaen Kelly ventured into the unknown's of Colombia on Saturday night and after a brave effort failed to come out for the 7th round. His classy Colombian opponent Irene Pacheco arguably won every round on home soil using his classy combinations and southpaw jab, Kelly had his successes and didn't look overrawed until the 6th but for all his good work he simply lacked the power to hurt Pacheco who is probably the best Flyweight in the world at the moment. Occasionally when Pacheco landed he hurt Kelly and backed him up but in between Kelly maintained a steady workrate and kept it competetive. But stinging bodyshots had Kelly down 3 times in the 6th round but he refused to quit or even grumble about the first which seemed borderline low, instead he battled on until the end of the round and a long discussion with his corner decided it was enough. Kelly picked up a career best £30,000 for the fight and must now drop down to domestic level and search for a match up with Liverpool banger Peter Culshaw, Pacheco is 32 but in the best form of his life, he must look for either Eric Morel or Pongsaklek Wonjongkam soon.
Well done to the BBC for not only showing this fight but also Mesi-Williamson and a good chunk of Sam-Gomez, they only need to replace Boxing no-nothings like John Rawling and Phil Jones (who?!) and they are making ground, they have already snapped up the forthcoming Jones-Tarver and Barrera-Pacquiao fights so they are trying.
Brave Kelly Halted In 7
Re: Brave Kelly Halted In 7
Kelly was excellent in defeat, up untill the 5th it was very close and Kelly certainly caused Pachecco a few problems with his handspeed and movement. For 4 rounds it was a facinating match up between two world class fighters.steve689 wrote:Nothern Ireland's Damaen Kelly ventured into the unknown's of Colombia on Saturday night and after a brave effort failed to come out for the 7th round. His classy Colombian opponent Irene Pacheco arguably won every round on home soil using his classy combinations and southpaw jab, Kelly had his successes and didn't look overrawed until the 6th but for all his good work he simply lacked the power to hurt Pacheco who is probably the best Flyweight in the world at the moment. Occasionally when Pacheco landed he hurt Kelly and backed him up but in between Kelly maintained a steady workrate and kept it competetive. But stinging bodyshots had Kelly down 3 times in the 6th round but he refused to quit or even grumble about the first which seemed borderline low, instead he battled on until the end of the round and a long discussion with his corner decided it was enough. Kelly picked up a career best £30,000 for the fight and must now drop down to domestic level and search for a match up with Liverpool banger Peter Culshaw, Pacheco is 32 but in the best form of his life, he must look for either Eric Morel or Pongsaklek Wonjongkam soon.
Well done to the BBC for not only showing this fight but also Mesi-Williamson and a good chunk of Sam-Gomez, they only need to replace Boxing no-nothings like John Rawling and Phil Jones (who?!) and they are making ground, they have already snapped up the forthcoming Jones-Tarver and Barrera-Pacquiao fights so they are trying.
If Pachecco is the number 1 fighters in the devision (which I'm not sure he is) then I would like to see Kelly go for another world title shot. He belongs in that class, his ranking of about 5th or 6th is about correct.
A fight with Culshaw would to be excellent, because he's world class. However, there is a weight issue and Saturday showed that Kelly is a small flyweight, and I'm not sure Culshaw can make the weight again.
I don't want Kelly to stay in domestic for two long. Bunce was talking about a 3 fight trilogy with Culshaw. I feel the winner should go for a version of the title. Their world class, let them fight for the title.
I thought the commentating was horrible on that fight, they CLEARLY knew the results of the contest cause after four rounds the fight was in the balance (I actually scored it 2-2 and I thought I was being kind to Pachecco). Most of Pachecco's punches were missing the target and Kelly was boxing well. Pachecco always looked the stronger, but Kelly was outstanding. Yet McKenzie and Neilly were saying it was a lost cause after about the 2nd - if that was a live commentary they wouldn't have been talking like that.
Then of course after the 5th round Neily says something like 'we won't be needing the Columbian officials). Hang on, Kelly survived another round - Neilly seemed a bit sure of himself. A wonder why??
Good fight, well done both guys.
Yes, good fight. And it was refreshing to see a fighter allowed to throw legitimate body shots without the referee harassing him continually to "keep them up!" American referees have done their best to kill the art of body punching. And the Yanks wondered why Jeff Fenech never wanted to fight in the States!
Good points guys, especially stu i agree wih you on commentators knowing the results before they commentate, it annoys me and only Steve Holdsworth does a good enough to mask the fact he knows the outcome. Sky's Adam Smith is a main culprit, did anyone catch Freitas-Barrios? It was so obvious he knew the outcome it was pathetic, before the 12th he says something like "Freitas is down on the scorecards but he has power to stop guys late, can he unload on Barrios and stop him.." blah blah YOU KNOW HE DOES YOU FOOL!!! And with Spencer "I'll agree with whatever you say" Oliver alongside him it just gets annoying!