Merseyside boxer Carly Skelly was stopped by Jamie Mitchell in the fourth round of their WBA Bantamweight Championship clash.
The 35-year-old nurse, from Litherland, fought valiantly but her opponent always had the better of the exchanges.
The advantage swung the champion’s way with a knockdown with less than 10 seconds left of the first round.
Skelly narrowly survived another knockdown in round two as Mitchell continued to impose herself, the referee counting to eight before allowing ‘Thumper’ to continue.
Her coach then warned that if she did not show something in the third, he would throw in the towel.
“I think she’s going to be too much you know, I’m going to call it,” he told his fighter.
“No, I can keep going,” Skelly insisted.
“Give us one more round then, that’s all you are getting. I’m not having you getting beat up in there,” he added.
There was an improvement from the Liverpool native, who showed plenty of heart but Mitchell still managed to wobble her.
That fight-back only delayed the inevitable, an onslaught in round four was enough for referee Wes Melton to stop the contest.
Biggest night of Skelly’s career
Despite coming up short in her biggest fight yet, Skelly can be proud of what she has accomplished so far.
She took up boxing as a hobby, when taking a break from nursing and entering a white collar event where her husband, a former amateur boxer, remarked that she ‘had something about her’.
“He obviously has an eye for boxing and he encouraged me to go and see his old trainer Siedu (Sid) Siadankay at North Mersey ABC. It took off from there. I think he regrets it now,” Skelly told the Liverpool Echo
Since making her debut at Greenbank Sports Academy in May 2019, the 4-1-0 fighter has fought on the undercard of Chisora-Usyk and won the WBC International Super-Bantamweight title.
This was Skelly’s first world title fight and her debut on US soil, she will now head back to the North Mersey ABC gym and regroup.
(Featured image: Carly Skelly with Jamie Mitchell – Instagram, with permission)
