Karl Kelly happy to prove punch power in exciting debut fight

Midway through the second round of his pro debut on Saturday night Karl Kelly proved that his reputation as a puncher is well-founded.

A sharp short hook to the body sent the ultra-durable Damian Lawniczak down, hurting the Pole badly.

While he didn’t get the stoppage, Kelly certainly entertained in the four rounder. Lawniczak has proven over the years that he is game, recently losing to Aiden Metcalfe by a point, and Monkstown lightweight Kelly eventually took the bout on a scoreline of 39-36

‘Little Sexy’ told Irish-Boxing.com afterwards that “it was tough, he was a lot trickier than I expected. He brought it to the table and made work for me, he was tricky, kept coming in with his head, but I covered everything. My team, whatever they said, I did.”

“I was happy to get him down in the second. It was a good debut, I wanted to be tested, as I said previous.”

22 year old Kelly had plenty of experience on the semi-pro circuit, and brought this with him into the paid ranks. Cut multiple times on Saturday, the St Margaret’s man explained how “my last fight was tough, it was against a good pro at the moment Stephen McAfee.”

“We did eight rounds of war. I got a bad cut in the second [v Kelly], and that’s where I got the experience of carrying on with cuts and I’ve brought it into the pros.”

There are of course differences from the semi pros, and the smaller gloves was one which Kelly is quite fond of.

The Dubliner remarked “my God, the lads gave me eight ounce gloves and I put them on and d’you know what it reminded me of? You know those little gloves you get for your rearview mirror? It reminded me of them!”

“There’s nothing in them, it was a push to get into my gloves with my wraps. I could feel the extra two ounces in it, the extra pump.”

“It’s professional boxing, we’re not here to mess and it’s not going to be easy.”

Kelly is sponsored by Matt Britton Carpets, House of Beds, Jason Gaughran, Stephen Redmond, Niall Clarke, and Lo-Cal Meals Delivered.

Photo Credit: Laszlo Geczo Photography