Josh Kelly WINS first belt against Carlos Molina in flashy Joshua vs Parker undercard bout

An Olympian just two years ago, Kelly showed why he has been called “the complete package” by promoter Eddie Hearn.

Molina took Kelly into unknown territory by going past round six but the younger man looked more than capable of dealing with it and took a convincing 98-92, 98-92, 99-91 judges’ decision at

the final bell to lift the WBA International welterweight belt.

Molina had promised not to let Kelly “think or breathe” in the ring, something the 28-8-2 former world champion was more than capable of doing in his pomp - but the triumphant Kelly felt he

had slowed so much that he had become a tricky but not overly challenging fighter.

“He was hard to catch clean and when I was loading up, he kept pulling me back,” Kelly said.

“I didn’t want to hurt the hands too much. It was a really big test but I thought I dealt with it well - although I took a few cheap shots.

“Unorthodox rhythm and an unorthodox jab. He was that slow that he was really really awkward.”

Given that it was the first serious test of the Englishman’s young career in only his sixth fight, he looked surprisingly comfortable in the ring, coming out of his corner early as is his

wont and no doubt sending a message to an opponent 10 years his senior.

The Sunderland fighter’s head movement was typically silky and smooth with his low guard allowing him to sight Molina’s shots early and avoid with some panache.

The glitz on the belt of his shorts was matched by his work with his gloves, occasionally switching to southpaw but doing his best work behind a lightning jab.

Molina appeared to warm to the task in the fourth and started the fifth fast, but it only seemed to remind Kelly of the task at hand.

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He stepped up the tempo and started to box at a level Molina could hardly match.

The question would be whether Kelly could maintain the speed or find the power - or even both.

But there were other answers for him to find too - namely avoiding getting caught on the counter by his experienced opponent.

It was in the eighth that Molina started to find Kelly’s rhythm but on more than one occasion he left his corner calling for more as he failed to land combinations in return.

Only in the very final round did Molina start to box with any urgency and genuinely seemed to challenge Kelly but it was too little too late and the two fighters passed each other, one on

the way up and the other on the way down.

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