Former UFC fighter Paul Kelly has been jailed for four years after changing his pleas to guilty on the first day of his trial at Liverpool Crown Court on October 19. The 42-year-old, originally from West Derby and now of no fixed abode, admitted charges including assault occasioning actual bodily harm, two counts of damaging property, disclosing private sexual photographs, breach of a non-molestation order, and two counts of acting in breach of a restraining order. He was also handed three indefinite restraining orders.
From MMA career to drug conviction
Kelly once competed as a professional mixed martial arts fighter in the UFC, fighting at venues such as London's O2 Arena. He fought nine times in the UFC and was said to have earned as much as £100,000 as an MMA fighter before a sophisticated surveillance operation on a drug gang in Liverpool led to his arrest.
Police connected Kelly and his childhood best friend to the Croxteth Young Guns (CYG), a street gang armed with guns and grenades that fought a gang war with rivals in Norris Green and was behind a string of shootings and arson attacks across the city. Following a Merseyside Police operation, a courier was found with 1.5kg of heroin, worth around £100,000, which led to Kelly being charged and found guilty of conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Sentence and claims of reform
Kelly was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2013 but was released on licence after just six years. During his time in prison, he had stints in both HMP Liverpool and HMP Garth in Lancashire. In 2017, he was put on a work placement at a Merseyside garage before being released on licence.
Speaking to the ECHO in 2020, Kelly claimed to have turned his back on crime and returned to the cage. He said: "In prison you have no dignity, self-respect, humanity. You're just a number. It's given me a big appreciation of life, but it's also made me a harder, tougher, colder person. When you're in prison and you're away from your family, you can't show fear, emotion."
He added: "When I was out on the town, partying, everyone's your pal. I haven't done that for so long. I've been at the highest level of the sport with the highest calibre of fighter in the sport. I've been there and done it. My focus is now on my family. I love a big family. There are not many big families like ours anymore."
Despite those claims, Kelly was back in court this year, where he was due to face trial before changing his pleas to guilty and being sentenced on the spot.
