Sometimes you get the feeling in boxing that two fighters are made for each other and don’t have to be the same in style or personality. Sometimes it can be a matter of geography, with both coming from the same part of the world, and sometimes it can be down to where they are in their respective careers and what it takes to get ahead. set more than that.
In case Troy Williamson and Josh Kelly, it’s hard to think two British boxers need each other more. Both come from the same part of the world – the North East – but more importantly, their clash at Newcastle Arena comes at a time when both need a little extra to develop their relationship. his profession. to the next level.
For Williamson, the British super-welterweight champion, this could be as simple as a live match on terrestrial television (the match against Kelly will be shown live on Channel 5 this Friday, the day 2 December) with a big name in the country. That in itself presented him with an opportunity he had never been given before; an opportunity to both reach a large audience, and possibly capture the attention of someone whose personal profile is, as it stands, considerably larger than his own.
So far, as solid as before, Williamson has done much of his work in the dark, winning 19 professional matches (14 on the schedule) but getting little credit for this. there. Throughout those 19 games, there was a lot of action, especially in wins over Ted Cheeseman (TKO 10) and Mason Cartwright (UD 12), and there was also a British title added to the cape. his, guaranteed victory over Cheeseman. Yet despite this, Williamson, at 31, needs and will want more. He’ll know that it’s time to take action and show that he’s more than just an all-around boxer with domestic title aspirations.
In Kelly, he found his perfect shield, the one ideal for him not only in the local rivalry aspect but also in the professional side. For Kelly, like Williamson, is a man who needs to be inspired at this stage in his career and needs to feel almost scared, or at least threatened, when it comes to taking risks. .
Indeed, it’s a lack of fear that makes Kelly, who’s known as “Pretty Boy,” at times a fuzzy figure on the night of the fight. Luckily, it seems with all the talent in the world, he’s clearly the type of guy who needs to be challenged in order to take his turn to challenge himself. If not, if instead he feels he can go to victory rather than fight for it, there will be a temptation, like anyone similarly blessed, to do so.
Against Williamson, however, there will be no such luxury. He will be challenged, no doubt. Whether it will ultimately be enough to scare Kelly into reaching his best is another matter, but for sure, the match against Troy Williamson was the biggest challenge Kelly has faced since. since all was cleared up for him before David Avanesyan in February 2021.
That night Kelly started off pretty well, but faded away when slashed and Avanesyan literally began to taste blood. Then, by the sixth round, Kelly was exhausted, out of ideas and unstoppable Avanesyan. Then his coach, Adam Booth, gave up.
Since then, Kelly, now 28, has reacted well, winning two games this year against a frankly admitted opponent: a fourth-round loss to Peter Kramer in June and the decisive one. in the 10th round against Lucas Ariel Bastida in July. Most importantly, he chose to rest for a while after Avanesyan’s defeat in order to search for his soul, which he believes helped overcome a lot of the mental issues he had after the defeat. That first professional.
Now, with a stronger mind, one who is no longer afraid of the worst-case scenario, Kelly feels he is finally ready to reach his full potential. as a super weight. It was a new weight class for him, by the way, which Williamson felt Kelly didn’t belong in. It’s also there, Kelly says he sees his long-term future.
But that – any future plans – can wait. For now, the Sunderland man, eager to learn from his past mistakes, isn’t getting carried away by recent wins, nor will he be willing to look too far ahead of what’s right in front of him. . He will know, having spent time with Williamson as amateurs, and having played him, what his rival Darlington can offer him on Friday night and he also knows the pain of failure, which he never wants to experience again.
That, of course, can work either way. It can cause a fighter to become paralyzed with fear, thus becoming negative and afraid of guns, or it can focus them more and make them even more determined to avoid it happening a second time. . Whatever it is with Kelly, we’ll only discover the truth when he fights someone like Williamson; a person with whom he has a history; a person with equal ambition.
Still not ready to get rid of him, one Kelly suspect, 12-1-1 (7), will show up on this special occasion. He will benefit from the fact that Williamson is expected to lose in the early rounds, as well as the respect Williamson has for his talent, and may have enough of a lead to warrant it. that Williamson’s late rally was not enough to reverse the card deficit.
Meanwhile, on the bottom card of Newcastle, former Commonwealth light-heavyweight champion Lyndon Arthur20-1(14), meet Joel McIntyre, 20-4 (5), in a match scheduled to last 10 innings. This will be Arthur’s second fight since losing the title to Anthony Yarde last December (TKO 4) and at McIntyre he meets someone who has returned to boxing in 2021 after a three-year hiatus; one last time stopped Chad Sugden for eight innings for the British light-heavyweight crown.
