{"id":612558,"date":"2026-04-17T08:42:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/612558\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T08:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:42:15","slug":"pfl-belfast-jay-jay-wilson-defeats-donegals-darragh-kelly-in-37-seconds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/612558\/","title":{"rendered":"PFL Belfast: Jay-Jay Wilson defeats Donegal’s Darragh Kelly in 37 seconds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jay-Jay Wilson stunned the Belfast crowd with a devastating first-round knockout of Donegal’s Darragh Kelly, handing the Irishman his first professional defeat in just 37 seconds.<\/p>\n

‘The Moville Mauler’ Kelly was stopped by seventh-ranked lightweight Jay-Jay Wilson in the main event at PFL Belfast.<\/p>\n

Wilson had originally been scheduled to face Paul Hughes, but the bout was rearranged after Hughes withdrew with a knee injury.<\/a><\/p>\n

The New Zealander, who was returning from a defeat by Archie Colgan last October, slipped Kelly’s early jabs before landing a left kick and following up with a powerful left hook that ended the contest almost immediately, silencing the SSE Arena.<\/p>\n

“I landed the side kick, set my base and once I saw it connect I sat on the hook, and that was all she wrote,” said Wilson after the victory.<\/p>\n

Despite entering as the away fighter, Wilson embraced the occasion and the crowd. <\/p>\n

“Ireland, I love you guys\u2026 even though you were against me,” he said, before targeting Alfie Davies for a potential June bout in San Diego.<\/p>\n

Confident in his preparation, Wilson added: “I know what I’m capable of\u2026 I put my confidence in the work I do in the gym.”<\/p>\n

The victory marked a significant moment for ‘The Maori Kid’, who also spoke about representing his background and inspiring others. <\/p>\n

“If I can do it, anyone can do it,” he said. “I want to lead the way for troubled youth.”<\/p>\n

In the co-main event, Ballymena’s Rhys McKee marked his PFL debut with a hard-fought victory over Alex Lohore, earning a unanimous 30-27 decision after a competitive three-round contest.<\/p>\n

Having been controlled early through grappling, McKee grew into the fight, finding success with his jab and striking in the second round.<\/p>\n

The decisive moment came in the third, when McKee dropped Lohore with a right hand before finishing strongly to secure victory.<\/p>\n

“It was unbelievable\u2026 what a night in Belfast,” McKee said. <\/p>\n

“All I wanted was to be excited about fighting again and PFL answered.”<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old, whose bout was only confirmed in March<\/a>, admitted it was a challenge but never considered turning it down.<\/p>\n

“When PFL asks you to fight in your home city, what can you say? You have to do it.”<\/p>\n

McKee also reflected on the significance of competing in front of a home crowd. <\/p>\n

“That will stay with me for the rest of my life. These nights are rare, you have to take them in.”<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, he added: “I’m coming for the PFL rankings\u2026 put Rhys McKee up.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jay-Jay Wilson stunned the Belfast crowd with a devastating first-round knockout of Donegal’s Darragh Kelly, handing the Irishman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-612558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}