Paul Anthony Kelly[1] (born 12 September 1984) is a retired British mixed martial artist who is best known for his nine-fight stint in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Coming from an amateur boxer family, Kelly grew up in boxing gyms and got in a lot of altercations in his youth.
[3] Kelly started out his mixed martial arts career in Liverpool, England at the Wolfslair MMA academy which was once home to The Ultimate Fighter 3 winner Michael Bisping.
Kelly revealed afterwards that his ribs had already been damaged going into the fight, a by-product of the notoriously hard-contact sparring sessions at Kaobon.
Kelly then looked to bounce back, against Matt Veach on the UFC 112 card in Abu Dhabi.
Later in the second round, Kelly secured a crucifix and hit O'Brien with multiple elbows, resulting in a TKO stoppage.
[28] Kelly, along with Xavier Foupa-Pokam and Lena Ovchynnikova signed a four-fight contract with the Super Fight League.
[31] They were having a disagreement over a fight that Richard Griffin and Ross Pointon had in the Dominican Republic that was recently posted on the UCMMA Facebook page.
Kelly stated that he thought Griffin was lucky in his fight with Pointon and that "The Real Deal" would win that match-up 9 times out of ten.
Griffin felt disrespected and fired back with some insults of his own, which including jabs at Kelly being dropped by the UFC.
Having been active at the gym and studying nutrition during his prison sentence, Kelly returned to the regional mixed martial arts competition at Probellum 1: Liverpool on 7 March 2020.
[35] In May 2013, Kelly was found guilty of heroin trafficking in the United Kingdom and was sentenced to 13 years in prison.