Eddie Kelly

Name: Eddie Kelly
Hometown: Buffalo, New York, USA
Pro Boxer: Record

"Buffalo" Eddie Kelly contended three times for the Featherweight Championship of the World against reigning champion Abe Attell between February 1908 and February of 1909. Attell was Featherweight Champion for a record eleven years, between 1901 and 1912, and fought Kelly three more times in non-title fights. Though there were countless Irish boxers named Eddie Kelly during the period, "Buffalo" Eddie Kelly was the only one who fought Abe Attell five times.

Boxing Career Highlights

Kelly may have begun fighting semi-professionally prior to his sixteenth birthday when he fought three short bouts in Buffalo, barely making flyweight at around 100 pounds.

Kelly fought Paddy Lavin four times in 1905. Lavin was an Irish-born boxer from Buffalo who eventually lost to several champions, including George Chip, Mike Gibbons, and Mike (Twin) Sullivan, and fought a number of championship contenders, including Willie Lewis. He once defeated William (Honey) Mellody.

By 1906, Kelly was sparring regularly with Battling Nelson, a lightweight world champion, who sang his praises. Nelson once told a reporter prior to Kelly's bout with Tommy O'Toole, "He sparred with me two and three times a day when I was doing my training for my bout with Terry McGovern...Kelly is the hardest little hitter I ever bumped up against. He has two good hands and they are ever ready to mix it up with you..." Edgren, R., "Battling Nelson Practices His Sleep Producer", The Evening World, Evening Edition, pg. 12, New York, New York, 7 March 1906. "Nelson Picks Kelly to Defeat O'Toole", The Evening World, Evening Edition, pg. 8, New York, New York, 22 May 1906.

In the spring of 1906, he knocked out competent club fighters Jack Flanigan, Abe "The Newsboy" Hollandersky, and Barney Abel in one round at the Metropolitan Athletic Club in Manhattan. The New York Evening World wrote in a promo for his next bout with George Hoey, that "Kelly is after a bout for the Featherweight Championship with Abe Attell and to demonstrate his worth is meeting the best feathers in this city. His path so far has been a rosy one. In Hoey he tackles a tough proposition, and if he scores decisively his claim to a fight with Attell will be merited." On March 30, 1906, he defeated George Hoey in the third round at the famed Sharkey Athletic Club in Manhattan.

In a build up to the Featherweight Championship, many Kelly fans were optimistic about his chances with Attell, due to his past performance. The Los Angeles Herald wrote, "some enthusiastic Kelly men profess to believe that he will enter the ring a favorite over Attell...Kelly is hailed as the successor to Terry McGovern and there is reason for it. He resembles the once terrible one in many ways. He has the same aggressive appearance, is stoutly built on the best of fighting lines and is a tremendous hitter for a boy of his size. He is a featherweight from his chest down, but his arms are almost as heavily muscled as those of a welterweight." But it was not to be.

Kelly's First Two Shots at the Featherweight Title

The San Francisco Call took note of Attell's strategy in Kelly's first shot at the Featherweight Championship on February 28, 1908 at Dreamland Rink in San Francisco. The Call wrote that "from the workmanlike manner in which he (Attell) brought the unequal contest to a close, it was evident that he could have ended it much sooner had he been so inclined." By the seventh round "it was evident that he wanted to knock out his opponent then and there if possible." The referee completed a full count shortly after the fight was called a TKO by a Police Captain present at ringside. According to page 7 of the Wilkes-Barre News for February 26, 1908, Kelly and his followers bet heavily on him to win, and Kelly had insisted the winner take all, which helped him to get the match with Attell. At least one source, Ken Blady, wrote that Attell had bet on winning the bout in the seventh, which was not exactly illegal in 1908. Blady described the bout on page 45 of his Jewish Boxer's Hall of Fame. One must consider the prowess of Attell, who knocked out an astounding 24 of his first 30 opponents. He was more than capable of predicting the round in which even a skilled opponent would hit the mat for the last time.

In their second Featherweight title bout, in Washington state on April 20, 1908, Attell finished Kelly in eight rounds, chewing gum during the match. The Seattle Star concluded the following day that Kelly had shown skill and determination and "demonstrated an ability to take punishment", but in the end, "it was a case of science against dogged determination, and science won."

After his last knockout loss to Attell in October of 1910, Kelly boxed on for only two more years, though losing all but one of his remaining fights with boxers who now outclassed him. He may have made a good living as a competent fringe contender had he forgone his matches with Attell, but he, like many others, had little chance with Attell who dominated the Featherweight division like no other boxer in the early 20th century.