European welterweight champion David Avanesyan (27-3-1, 15 KOs) scored a sixth round KO over previously unbeaten 2016 Olympian Josh Kelly (10-1-1, 6 KOs) on Saturday night at the SSE Arena in London. Kelly started strong, but Avanesyan turned the tide and battered Kelly to the canvas twice in round six to end it.
In a clash of undefeated welterweights, Florian Marku (8-0-1, 6 KOs) recovered from a sixth round knockdown to score an eighth round stoppage over Rylan Charlton (6-1-1, 3 KOs). Charlton’s corner threw in the towel with their man under fire.
Canelo Alvarez stablemate Gabriel Valenzuela (23-2-1, 13 KOs) took a ten round majority decision over Robbie Davies Jr (20-3, 13 KOs) to claim the vacant IBF Intercontinental super lightweight title. Valenzuela dropped Davies in round three. Valenzuela was docked a point for hitting on the break in round four. Valenzuela rocked Davies several times, had a knockdown, and had a big final round, but only managed to win on two cards 96-95, 96-95. The third card was 94-94!
Featherweight Jordan Gill (25-1, 7 KOs) outpointed Cesar Juarez (25-10, 19 KOs) over ten rounds to claim for the vacant WBA International title. Scores were 98-92, 98-93, 96-94.
Good win for Valenzuela. A very competitive edge but he was the better. Davies was a bit ragged at the end; more so than Valenzuela. I was afraid for a moment that he was about to be robbed, but thank goodness, that it didn’t happen.
Did you hear that?….the popping of a huge hype bubble.
I’ve never taken to Josh, I think mainly as he comes across as very arrogant. Nice win for Avanesyan, must feel very sweet, given the history between these 2.
Horrible judging again in the Davies match, Valenzuela won hands down. But he won anyway, when they took so long i was afraid he would be robbed completely.
I never did think Josh Kelly’s hands down style would work against top level fighters. However, I did believe he would be able outbox Avanesyan and win on points. Avanesyan is a hard man to discourage and keeps on coming even when under fire, but I would not consider him an A level fighter. This fight would have told us a lot more about Kelly than Avanesyan.
Kelly looked sharp early and was elusive while landing clean shots. Avanesyan was not able to keep up with Kelly for the first couple of rounds but started to exert his will as he finally got his engine going. Kelly started being hit cleanly as the rounds wore on and was no longer moving like he did in the early rounds.
Avanesyan stepped up his attack and wouldn’t be denied. It didn’t take much to get Kelly rubberlegged and once his legs were gone, he was done. Maybe Kelly can learn from this defeat, but I would have felt better about his chances of one day rising to A level if he had lasted a lot longer than he did today. Back to the drawing board for him and on to bigger and better things for David Avanesyan.
The 3 Valenzuela/Davies judges should be immediately suspended and investigated!
They didn’t even hide their favoritism….or incompetence.
Theo se scores make the Vegas judges seem “honest”.
I disagree. The Vegas judges have messed up multiple times, usually in favour of De la Hoya fighters. At least the British judges gave the win to the correct fighter.
I know it wasn’t Vegas but look at the judges who gave Broner the win over Santiago. They clearly gave the wrong fighter the win.
Not the right times to be named Josh !!
Agreed, first Warrington, now Kelly.
Just hope Josh Taylor wont be your 3rd.
Enjoyable fight card to watch, except as people said Valenzuela easily won in his fight. Should not have been nearly as close as those judges made it.