William Kelly | Evolution Fighting Championship · Ireland news

Summary

Join me with William Kelly from Top Pro Carlow after his hard-fought split-decision victory at EFC11! William opens up about bouncing back from a broken eye socket & cheekbone, fighting sick and powering through three tough rounds, trusting his coach’s game plan: leg kicks +…

AI summary AI-generated from the transcript

Post-fight interview with William Kelly after winning at Evolution Fighting Championship. He describes bouncing back from a loss on the same promotion about six months earlier, when he suffered a broken eye socket and cheekbone, and from a difficult camp this week with strep throat and antibiotics, when he nearly withdrew but chose to compete. He went the full three rounds and finished strong compared with being stopped in the second round last time, crediting listening to his corner for leg kicks and one-twos. He argues the split decision was unfair and that he won every round, while admitting he was gassed but not hurt. Kelly outlines a short combat résumé—about five bouts including two in one tournament day and an injury withdrawal—and only one year of formal training. An athletics background (cross country, sprints, strong cardio) feeds his kickboxing path; he plans many amateur stand-up fights before MMA, has entered for fights in July through September, and intends to stay in K1/low kick for the next two or three years while dabbling in jiu-jitsu without switching clubs yet. He reflects on nerves, overtraining while working five days and training six, and wanting better recovery and periodic deload weeks.

Transcript (youtube_captions)

[Applause] [Music] Okay. All right, everyone. EFC1, we're back here. I have Mr. William Kelly from Top Pro Carlo, is it? First of all, congratulations. Um, how do you feel after your victory tonight? Very happy and confidence came back. I fought on this show 6 months ago, the last one. Yeah. And I lost. Got my eye socket broke and cheap. So confidence is very low. Um delighted to get the win now cuz confidence straight back up and I know I know I can mix with the ranks and perform. Excellent. Uh so broke your eye socket and cheekbone and your cheek. Wow. That that um I'd hate to see the guy who did that. Um well first of all like you know what what is it that what did you take out of that last fight then coming into this one to get ready? Um, I was sick during the week. I trapped throat and I was on antibiotics and all. Okay. So, I was going to pull out, but I didn't want to pull out because I fought I was meant to fight there a few months ago and I was cutting weight and my opponent pulled out and I was snapping. So, I I don't like doing it. I don't like pulling out. So, I just went with it. Um, felt kind of better on the day today and I went three rounds. I felt like it was gas, but I stuck in there. So, compared to the last, I got stopped in the second round and I got experience here tonight like three rounds and I finished strong. So, I'm delighted. Yeah. No, you look you look really well in there. Uh first round, you look nice. Uh second round, uh excuse me, into the third round is when you did look a bit more tired in there, but to be fair, you both did. um you know kind of what was going through your head when you just started realizing like you know these gloves are heavy and you know you know you're starting to feel the the weight of the last two rounds like gas lack the gas were kicking in but the last fight I wasn't really listening to my coach but there he was telling me just leg kick one two and I was listening just listening keeping the mind just focused on what he's saying and I was doing exactly what he was saying and it was working so I know just to trust my co trust my coaches and it worked um now it was a split decision um are you a bit disappointed in that or are you know, happy. I taught the judges. It was unfair. I thought I won every round. Um was glimpses where he hit me and then I was tired, but I wasn't hurting there one bit. Thank god I wasn't hurt one bit. I was just a little bit gassed. Um but I thought I won all rounds. I don't know where the judge got 130 to 27 or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Like I'd say the first two for sure you got and then the last round uh maybe either way there, but um you know either it split decisions are tough and know and even the judges don't like getting those. So, um I hope that makes you feel a little bit better. It does. Yeah. Yeah. Um so, like that being said, like is this your this is your second fight then ever? This is my fifth fight. I fought I fought twice in a tournament. Two fights in one day and then I pulled out cuz I hit your man's knee and broke my foot so I had to stop. So, was fifth fight if you want to include them too. Okay. How long have you been training in general? One year. One year. One year. Yeah. In your fifth fight? Yeah. Excellent. That's awesome. So like what what is it in general that kind of got you into the sport? Well, I my background is athletics but um I always done a bit of sparring and boxing never compete. Um then I was I'm 25 now and turned 25 but 24 like I was thinking boxy at the start at a young age. So you know I kind of give kickboxing again I go I want to get a good few stand up fights and then longterm down the line I want to do ground game and do MMA. So okay um my fitness is up there you know for mythletics and all. So just get more experience. I need ring ring like rounds. Three rounds is good. Um I need to learn, you know, have a load of amateur fights and then down to we'll see. We'll see what will happen. What what sports are you coming from? Um running athletics. Oh, running. Long distance running. Okay. In the winter cross country and then summer sprinting like 800,500. So I have the You have the cardio down for sure. Yeah. You know, and even like myself, that's something that uh that's hard to hard to maintain. Um and unfort is one of those things you either have it or you don't. Yeah. And then sometimes even if you have it, you know, one of you is going to have it, you know, better than the other. So coming from a running background, that's awesome. Yeah. Like the hill sprints, 10K is not a bother. I need to get my boxing good, keep boxing good and drills after drills, you know, fighting IQ and stuff. But there's 10ks, sprints, hill sprints, I'll do them till the cows come home. You know, it's that's not not a problem. I just need to get my confidence back and it's back tonight. Right on. Uh what do you do to kind of maintain your nerves? I was very nervous every fight. I'm very nervous. Okay. I kind of just breathe in out straight away. Breathe in out straight away. And when I get in there, the nerves go once I just touch gloves. Um I can't I can't get rid of the nerves. It's all It's always going to happen. You get me? What uh what's it like when the the ref shuts the door and it's just, you know, the two of you in there and you know, how does that feel? I try to just empty my mind. I try I try to just focus just and then just listen to my coach. Okay. just kind of, you know, go with the flow, listen to coach, and I know that I'm confident now that his instructions like, you know, that he's going to put me in the right direction. Very good. Uh, is is there anything is there anything in particular that you're taking away from tonight that you're going to apply to your next uh competition? My uh recover, do you know, I'm working six days a week? Well, five days, sorry. And I'm training six days. So, I felt very fatigued like I just need to get my recovery done. Um, improving sa steam rooms. Um, I train six days, but I'm kind of thinking like training a block of four weeks hard, one week easy. Yeah. Yeah. I think I'm overt training a bit, which is that can be tough. It's common. Yeah, it is. It can be tough, too. And then it's tough to definitely dial it back, especially if you uh, you know, you have an event like this that you are coming up to. So, you know, you never want to dial it down because then, you know, it feels like you're not working, you know, and yeah, it's a doubt in your mind, you know, thinking that you're not fit enough. But overt training, you'll just be below. You get me? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Um, definitely. Uh, so like do do your coaches kind of help you with, you know, overt training? Do they kind of they talk to you and say, "Look, you're overt training. You need to, you know, back off on some things." They do, but I'm I always just don't listen. I always say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." And then I just go out and train, say nothing, you know? Um, but I just need to trust them, listen to what they're saying. As a runner, as a runner though, it's probably difficult. Like, you probably run every day, don't you? Well, I'm down the club three or four times a week and all the rest is running and then I do one strength training in the gym. Okay. It's just strength, you know, strength and conditioning. Yeah. Yeah. That's basically it. Um, but running. I could run every day if I wanted to, you know, but what's the longest you've ever run? 16 mile. Sorry. 16k 10 mile. Okay. Like ever? Ever? Yeah. Yeah. Like I would go for half Martin, but I'm too young, you know? It's hard on the joints and stuff. Yeah. Do you know? Yeah. Right on. So, uh, like what's next for you in terms of combat sports? I'm down for August, July, August, September. Um, that's the next three fights coming up and I put my name down for all of them. Um, I'll fight anyone. I'll take any fight. Do you know you stay with K1 or you going to do uh you want to do MMA or I like K1. Okay. Um, low kick, whichever. But, um, I'm going to stick in the kickbox and stand up for now anyway for next two or three years. And I was doing a bit of ground game jiu-jitsu, but I'm not ready to move to a jiu-jitsu completely club and stuff. Do you know what MMA? But um I want to get stand up game a few more fights and see how it goes. Okay. Right on. Well, look man, I appreciate your time. Uh thanks a lot for, you know, coming here and talk to me and I hope to get to talk to you again sometime. All right. Thank you. All right. Appreciate it, brother. Thank you. Heat. Heat. [Applause]