Nathan Kelly Finds Strength in Weakness

Nathan Kelly lost the first two fights of his career in the span of 10 months on the European regional scene. Some six years later, he can reflect on those bumps in the road and admit they were crucial to his long-term development as a mixed martial artist.

“I took them very, very hard,” Kelly told Sherdog.com. “I think I needed that, just to experience that dark side of the game, the side no one wants to experience, to get the taste of defeat, to make sure to never face it again.”

Now a promising cog in the Bellator MMA-Professional Fighters League wheel, Kelly has not lost since. The 27-year-old Irishman will carry a 10-fight winning streak into his Bellator Champions Series 3 featherweight prelim opposite Jose Sanchez this Saturday at 3Arena in Dublin. Kelly has finished seven opponents during his current tear and made Vikas Singh Ruhil his latest victim on March 22, when he needed just 40 seconds to bury the promotional newcomer with an elbow strike at Bellator Champions Series 1. Kelly does not hold Sanchez in high regard, despite the fact that the Spaniard has never been stopped by strikes in 16 professional appearances.

“I expect him to fight me by any means necessary,” Kelly said. “He’ll want to grab a hold of me and put me in a clinch. I think he’s very one-dimensional. I think he will eat 20 punches just to make sure he gets that clinch, so I know what he’s coming to do. I know what his game plan is going to be. It’s about me capitalizing on his mistakes.”

Kelly has already identified weaknesses he believes he can exploit.

“He doesn’t set up his punches well,” he said. “He attacks in straight lines. He dips his head to the right a lot. I think there’s a lot of openings there for shots for me. Maybe—fingers crossed—if I can land the right shot, I’ll put away his record of not being KO’d. I will finish him inside of two rounds, if all goes accordingly to how I see the fight going. Definitely, I think he’s too one-dimensional for me. I feel like I’m too skilled in all areas of the game, be it striking, wrestling, clinching, jiu-jitsu, everything. I feel like I’m just levels above him, and I’m going to show that.”

Kelly operates out of the SBG Ireland camp, where he trains alongside former two-division Ultimate Fighting Championship titleholder Conor McGregor and a number of other upper-echelon stablemates. He has the utmost confidence in his preparation for Sanchez, and the ability to throw elbows under Bellator rules—they are forbidden in the PFL—provides him with one more weapon with which to work.

“We have great energy,” Kelly said. “We know this guy has got a clinch, so we’ve been working a lot on landing some lovely elbows and knees in the clinch, controlling him and really breaking him down bit by bit. I’ve also added a lot more skills to my kicking game. We’ve really focused on adding layers to the kicking game. I want to be someone who could be so skilled everywhere that everyone is very hesitant to fight me. No matter where the fight goes, they will find no joy in finding a way to beat me. That’s what I’ve been trying to do. I’ve just been trying to develop my game to be so skilled everywhere so no one can beat me and no one will want to fight me. Fight by fight, I’m getting the ability to show that.”

Kelly expects his encounter with Sanchez to be entertaining for however long it lasts.

“It’s going to be a banger of a fight,” he said, “and I’m looking to put this lad away inside two rounds.”