Conner Kelsall added the vacant Commonwealth flyweight title to his English belt with a majority decision victory over hometown favorite Conor Quinn in Belfast. 

Kelsall, 12-0 (1 KO), presented an ever-moving target in the opening round. Stepping around Quinn, 9-1-1 (6 KOs), keeping him occupied with feints and taking the round as Quinn stalked, bided his time and had a look at the 25-year-old from Doncaster. 

He had another look in the second. He landed the odd shot to Kelsall’s body but didn’t come close to upsetting the Yorkshireman’s rhythm or closing the distance regularly. 

Quinn did let a couple of right hands go early in the third and began to get his feet close enough to land single shots. He wasn’t able to cut down the ring and was giving Kelsall plenty of room to escape but Kelsall was out of range with much of his work. 

Kelsall tried to swing matters back in his favor in the fourth. His tactics remained the same, moving and dancing to his left, but he let his hands go more often and tried to take advantage of Quinn’s predictable single shots. 

The fight wasn’t exactly thrill-a-minute but it was strangely intriguing.

Kelsall seemed to have the fight well under control but with the rounds slipping steadily by, surely Quinn would dispense with his tactic of throwing single shots and commit to an attack and try to shake Kelsall out of his comfort zone. 

The charge didn’t start in the sixth, as Kelsall held his feet long enough to let some flashy combinations go. It was disciplined work from Kelsall who grew in confidence but never allowed himself to become overconfident and stray from his gameplan.

Whether Quinn had been worried having never gone past eight rounds or whether he had just been bamboozled by Kelsall’s movement, Quinn finally started to get a couple of inches closer in the eighth. He got pinged by a right hand by Kelsall but he spent much longer in punching range than in any other round and enjoyed more success because of it. That pattern continued in the ninth. Kelsall fell short with the majority of his punches while Quinn continued to pick away whenever he was close enough.

We were almost into point fighting territory now with individual shots being cheered loudly by each corner and a handful of eye-catching shots swinging a round one way or the other. The 10th was hard to score but one burst from Kelsall may have earned him the frame.

Rather than trying to grab the fight by the scruff of the neck, both fighters seemed intent on not making the mistake which would cost them the fight in the 11th. It felt like the onus was on Quinn to up that tempo but there was no indication that he was willing to do so and his corner seemed calm and happy with how things were going.

Until the last 20 seconds of the round, the 12th was indistinguishable from any other. Kelsall – who barely seemed to tire – moved, feinted, picked and poked while Quinn held the center of the ring and tried to land with heavier punches whenever the two were close.

Kelsall danced and celebrated as the final bell drew near. Quinn refused to chase him and stood, rooted to spot watching him. He even put his arms behind his back at one point. 

The fight went to the judges. Lee Every couldn’t split them, having it 114-114, but Terry O’Connor saw Kelsall winning 115-114 and Hugh Russell Jr. also had him winning by a wider score of  116-112.