Josh Kelly came in the favorite over Ray Robinson, in a Brit vs Philly fight, at Madison Square Garden in NYC on Saturday night, underneath the Anthony Joshua-Andy Ruiz main event.
After ten rounds, the judges spoke: 96-95 for Kelly…..95-95, 95-95…a majority draw.
Second straight draw for Ray, and yes, a bit of a harsh message and come back to earth message for Kelly.
Ray entered 24-3-1, at age 33. The WBA international champ “Pretty Boy” Kelly, age 25, was 9-0 coming in to NYC.
In the first, RR, the lefty, stayed patient, and feinted, and got warm. Josh had the hands down, showed sweet hand speed, looked very chill.
In the second, we heard some booing, as fans wanted less looking, and more punching. To the third, we saw Kelly get those angles, hands low, land lead rights, bounce, and RR was waiting, and trying to land some body work.
In the fourth, Kelly showed that hand speed, pot shotted, usually throwing that single shot, and then bringing his hands back to defensive mode. RR looked to land to the body in the fifth and the start of the sixth. Hands down JK was jab free, and Ray had a hard time getting a bead on the Englishman. We saw some blood over the right eye of RR, at the 25 seconds mark.
Into round seven…RR had a game plan, wasn’t getting silly trying to tag the slippery eel. But he was not up on those cards.
In the eighth, we saw RR look to close the distance, and he got tagged late. “That’s probably the best shot of the fight, and Robinson took it well,” said Sergio Mora in the analyst chair for DAZN. On replay, we saw RR land a low blow, then a clean left up top.
In the ninth, the crowd got a jolt, from some trading. A head butt ejected the Kelly mouth piece. Yeah, the Philly was coming out. To round ten, we saw some more back and forth, because of fatigue. The blood on the right eye of Kelly, what would the judges be deciding? To the cards we went..
