Kelly ill, out of fight with Avanesyan

The fight will be rescheduled.

Top welterweight prospect Josh Kelly was slated to face David Avanesyan today in Sheffield on the Brook-Zerafa undercard, but Kelly fell ill overnight and the fight has been scrapped, Matchroom Boxing tweeted today.

Matchroom added that the fight will be rescheduled.

Kelly (8-0, 6 KO) was looking to step up the competition a bit against Avanesyan (23-3-1, 11 KO), a former secondary WBA titleholder. The 24-year-old Kelly, a 2016 Olympian for Great Britain, has become a fast-rising star for Matchroom and one of its most promising young fighters.

Avanesyan, 30, has lost two of his last three, dropping a decision to Lamont Peterson in 2017 and a stoppage to Egidijus Kavaliauskas in February of this year, but he was still a nice next step for a young fighter who still has plenty of development as a professional left to go.

Hopefully, we’ll still see this one. It’s the exact right kind of matchup for Kelly right now. If he’s the real deal, he should win, but Avanesyan is good enough to prove he isn’t if, you know, he isn’t.