Conner Kelsall Bests Conor Quinn In Battle Of Unbeaten Flyweights

Conner Kelsall silenced the home support of Conor Quinn to claim the vacant commonwealth flyweight title via 12-round majority decision on Friday at The SSE Arena (formerly Odyssey Arena), Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Kelsall (12-0, 1 knockout) was awarded the decision on the scorecards 116-112, 115-114, while the other judge couldn’t separate the two scoring the encounter 114-114.

The early going was relatively cagey in the headliner on the Queensberry Promotions event. The quick-footed visitor stayed on the outside flicking out the jab. It proved the pattern for the fight with Kelsall’s constant movement giving Quinn (9-1-1, 6 KOs) trouble throughout the night.

Quinn went to the body in an effort to slow the perpetual motion of Kelsall and though the Doncaster man’s ribs were reddened early on it was never a factor.

The crowd were noticeably quite after the first few rounds. Quinn was unable to change the tempo and spent much of the fight following Kelsall around and couldn’t effectively cut off the corners.

Kelsall, 25, boxed on his toes while using his jab and occasional right hand and even when Quinn did have an success, it was fleeting.

In the closing 20 seconds of the fight Kelsall decided to literally run around the ring and goad Quinn by putting his hands in the air to signal he believed he had won. It was a rather unsavory way to conclude the fight but although the scorecards were a little closer than it appeared he did get the win

“He said he was gonna catch me, I don’t think I got hit hardly, call it a draw, I call it a mismatch,” said Kelsall. “Look at my face compared to his, I think that speaks a thousand words.

“The hard work paid off; we had a grueling camp. I’ve done it on the road with Jason [Cunningham] and Stefy [Bull] and the team. Everything against us, the Irish didn’t back us but we backed ourselves.”

In co-feature Pierce O’Leary dominated his fellow Dublin native Darragh Foley over 10-rounds to claim a wide unanimous decision.

The unbeaten O’Leary (15-0, 8 KOs) was classy throughout, while Foley (22-6-1, 11 KOs) showed resilience. O’Leary was awarded the decision 99-90 and 98-91 x2.

Both traded jabs in the early going before O’Leary landed a nice right hand with around a minute left in the opening round and then in the closing seconds he got Foley’s attention with an uppercut.

O’Leary, 24, continued his fast start and walked Foley, 35, into a perfect right uppercut that dropped Foley in center ring. Foley, who had never previously been stopped, rose and used his experience to initially wrestle O’Leary to the floor to buy himself extra time and allowed him to clear his head.

O’Leary hurt Foley again late in Round 3 with a pair of bodyshots and then unloaded while the older man lay on the ropes in an effort to become the first fighter to stop Foley but was unable to though he continued to have his way dominating the action over the next couple of rounds.

Foley showed considerable grit and though he was shaken by a terrific left hook he wasn’t in danger of going down and even beckons O’Leary on to him.

The rugged Foley had one of his better rounds in the eighth mauling O’Leary up close. During one of those exchanges the two collide and clashed heads. The result was both men came away with cuts.

At the end of the fight in a fine show of sportsmanship Foley hoisted O’Leary onto his shoulders.

It was an excellent performance from O’Leary that showed his promise.

“We got the job done tonight, big things happening next please God,” said O’Leary. “It was amazing, it goes to show you the level I’m at. We came out and executed the game plan perfectly, we could have gone through the gears a little bit more.

“I’ll be back in the gym as soon as possible and keep on working together.”

His trainer Joe McNally, who also trains Liam Smith and Josh Taylor, had a word of warning for the other more known rising junior welterweights in the U.K.

“It was a fantastic performance, Darragh is a gatekeeper to see if a fighter can push on to the world elite,” said McNally. “There’s stuff this man does in the gym, I think he could be one of the best [young] 140-pounders in the world now.

“People speak about Adam Azim and Dalton Smith but listen to me, Pierce O’Leary is the future of the 140-pound division in Europe – he’s special. He was cruising at times tonight, I don’t think anybody has done that to Darragh.”

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