Bakhram Sait-Khamzatovich Murtazaliev vs. Joshua Kelly & Josh Padley vs. Jaouad Belmehdi RBR.

Was walking forward but it wasn’t clever pressure- very one dimensional and just too predictable, I do think he’ll watch it back and kick himself a bit, imo he could have done a lot more

 

Tbf to kelly he made the big fella miss most of his punches all night long. Bak could have put the pressure on earlier but when he did he threw the kitchen sink at kelly. Just couldnt find him enough.

Good use of movement. Pot shotting and very good reflexes from kelly. The big guy looked a proper handful as well. He,ll give a lot of people problems that arent as elusive as kelly.

Kelly probably wont get that far only because the opponents going forward are bigger specimens than he is. But hes a talented fighter. One of Britains most talented and skilled atm.

 

This fight showed that elite footwork usually neutralises linear power. Kelly didn’t get drawn into a brawl, which was the real danger. Murtazaliev looked strong but frustrated; he just couldn't cut the ring off. Not a thriller, but a tactical masterclass from Kelly

 

I just watched the entire main event and what a performance by Josh Kelly ! I have to be honest and admit that I didn't give him much of a chance of winning beforehand (didn't think he was capable of delivering such an effort). Really impressed !

 

No doubt he underperformed last night but that shouldn't take anything away from Josh Kelly who delivered a very concentrated and mature effort.

 

Fantastic performance from Kelly and a great result for boxing in general. The Benn rivalry is nothing anymore, there's levels to this game and Kelly is levels above that little runt.

 

Just watched it. Not a classic by any means, but Josh Kelly fought brilliantly there. Did exactly what needed to be done to win.

 

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5 months ago. Now Hearn’s celebrating like he was in the corner with him.

 

I will have to watch this one again; Murtazaliev was much more aggressive but a lot of his aggression was ineffective, and Kelly the opposite. If you just regard the totality of punches that actually landed then there is very little between the two; because Murt was missing much more often I feel this allows a narrative to be established that he is being "frustrated", "neutered", "outboxed" etc, but again if you solely focus on the punches landed then there is nothing between the two as Kelly is throwing much less frequently. This poses an interesting question as to whether it is better not to throw, and by virtue not to miss, as opposed to a fighter trying to press the action against an elusive opponent; I say this as in the latter case a fighter is seemingly penalised for missed punches as if they are punches landed by the opponent.