Welterweight David Avanesyan (26-3-1, 14 KOs) will finally defend his EBU European title against undefeated 2016 Olympian Josh Kelly (10-0-1, 6 KOs) in a bitter grudge match on January 30 at a venue to be confirmed, live on Sky Sports in the UK and on DAZN in the U.S.
The rivals were due to meet at the FlyDSA Arena in Sheffield back in December 2018 before an illness forced Kelly to withdraw from the contest on the morning of the fight, leading to “bottle job” jibes from Avanesyan’s manager Neil Marsh as bad blood boiled over between the camps.
A meeting between the pair was rescheduled for March 2020 at The O2 in London only for the outbreak of the coronavirus in the UK to scupper their plans once more, but the rivals have a chance to settle their feud once and for all next month in a fight that has been brewing for over two years.
10-0-1
Kelly is 10w 1D, not 10-6-1
So they alter the incorrect record listed for Kelly and don’t bother to acknowledge me for pointing it out to them!
Josh Kelly hasn’t gotten a lot of exposure here in the states but I enjoy watching him fight. He’s a stylist and a showman, which I appreciate, but often times those guys get caught trying to be cute when they start facing stiffer competition. He kinda reminds me of Tokunbo Olajide, Micheal Olijide’s younger brother, who fought in a similiar fashion a few years back. He had a whole bag of fun tricks and made his opponents look foolish, until he lost a couple fights and pulled his biggest trick of all-he made himself disapear!