After the dismantling of Peter Kramer last week, junior middleweight Josh Kelly (11-1-1, 7 KOs) wastes no time in returning to action on July 30th in Newcastle, England. Live on Channel 5, Kelly faces a tougher challenge when he faces ‘El Tornado’ Lucas Bastida (18-1-1, 10 KOs) of Argentina. The calculated and methodical win for Kelly last time out showed the boxing intelligence of Sunderland’s ‘PBK’, but Bastida will be coming to provide a much sterner test. It will be an eagerly contested fight, as both men hold similar records, share around a 50% KO ratio and are in their twenties. Kelly is the more experienced at 28-years-old.
“He is a tough South American who has plenty of experience for a fighter who is 25-years old. To only have one loss on his record shows how tough he is, there’s no doubt he’ll be coming to win,” said Kelly “He’s someone who is going to give me the hard rounds I need to get back into the mix for big fights and major titles. It’s very much the same from me though – I’m coming to show my class and I’ll be looking to get him out, 100%.”
Argentine Bastida will be coming to conduct his own takeover as he’ll be looking to capitalize on a TKO win in a South American title bout in his last fight. He will also be confident in the fact he will be the taller fighter, as he stands at 6’1” and edges Kelly with 8 more rounds under his belt.
After analyzing the career of Kelly, it is Bastida who believes he will come out on top having found what he believes to be is the winning formula for this fight. “Josh Kelly has Olympic experience, he’s a good boxer and very fast. I saw in his fight against Avanesyan that he got knocked down, and then he got stopped, so I think the key to victory will be to go to war from the beginning of the fight,” said Bastida. “For me this is my first fight abroad, I’m a warrior in life so I’ll be going to war as soon as the bell rings.”
Following the format of his nickname, “El Tornado” will be looking to arrive and cause as much destruction as possible before moving on. Kelly has stated before that he is back with vengeance, and will be happy to weather any condition that the Argentine throws his way.
