Josh Kelly defeats Przemyslaw Runowski – RESULTS

By Charles Bruns

Boxingnews24.com

In a tougher fight than expected, unbeaten 2016 Olympian Josh Kelly (9-0, 6 KOs) defeated the previously undefeated Polish fighter Przemyslaw Runowski (17-1, 3 KOs) by a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision on Saturday night on the undercard of the David Allen vs. Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne card on Sky Sports and DAZN at O2 Arena in London, England. The judges’ scores were 100-88, 100-88 and 100-89. Boxing News 24 scored it for Kelly by a 110-88 score.

Kelly dropped Runowski, 25, in rounds 2, 9 and 10. Kelly came close to finishing Runowski off in the ninth round when he unloading on him at will with shots. However, Kelly unable to do get enough mustard on his shots to get the stoppage. Kelly had suffered a hand injury earlier in the fight, and that took away a lot of the power on his right hand punches.

“It was a shot I threw, I’m not sure which shot it was,” said Kelly after the fight to Sky Sports. “It was really shooting through my hand.”

It was better that Kelly was able to go the full 10 round, because he seemed to be learning the entire fight. There was no quit in the tough as nails Runowski, and he was able to come back a little each time it looked like he on the verge of being finished by Kelly.

In round two, Kelly flurried on Runowski with a storm of shots that sent him down on the canvas. After Runowski got back up, Kelly tried to finish, but got caught with a hard hook to the head. That shot really got Kelly’s attention. Moments later, Kelly was caught with a massive right from Runowski.

One of the major negatives from Kelly’s performance was the way that he was getting hit by silly shots from Runowski because he was fighting with his hands down by his side the entire fight. Kelly, 25, was doing too much showboating, and not focusing on being serious and professional with his defense. It was hard to believe that Kelly’s trainer Adam Booth didn’t get him to snap out of the shooting aspect from his game, because he was getting caught once or twice in each round with big punches from Runowski. The Polish fighter isn’t known for his punching power, but his shots had more effect on them because Kelly throwing too many combinations and getting caught in between.

In the seventh, Kelly suffered a small nick under his right eye from a clash of heads. It wasn’t a problem, but it was something that could have been avoided if Kelly had stayed on the outside and jabbed the entire fight.

All in all, it wasn’t a great performance from Kelly. He’s going to need to improve dramatically for him to be able to hang with the likes of David Avanesyan. That’s someone he could be facing soon. Forget about Kelly fighting the likes of Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, Manny Pacquiao or Errol Spence. He’s not ready for those type of guys yet. He needs to stop fighting with his hands by his sides, and learn to keep them up to protect his hands. He didn’t used to fight like that in the Olympics. He’s become sloppy since he turned pro. It might be a good idea for Kelly got find another trainer that could instill some discipline in him, as Adam Booth is letting him get away with a lot of bad habits that another trainer wouldn’t put up with.