"Buffalo" Eddie Kelly (May 7, 1885 – 1944) was an American boxer who contended three times for the Featherweight Championship of the World against reigning champion Abe Attell between February 1908 and February 1909. Attell was Featherweight Champion for a record eleven years, between 1901 and 1912, and fought Kelly three more times in non-title fights. Kelly's three attempts at the Featherweight Championship were a record at the time for the three-year period, and it placed him squarely in the top five of rated Featherweights for those years.
Early boxing career
First plying his trade as a newsboy, Kelly started his boxing career in the greater New York area around 1900, fighting largely in clubs in Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Erie, Pennsylvania and northeastern Canada. Fighting prior to 1905, he fought Jockey Brady, Darby Giles, and Kid Gleason twice each. He fought the better known boxer Paddy Lavin three times beating him twice and drawing once. Lavin was a skilled 5' 11" Irish welterweight from Buffalo who would beat several outstanding boxers in his class after 1909 including Leo Houck, Unk Russell and ex-welterweight champion Honey Mellody. In forty-two of Kelly's better publicized fights between 1900 and 1907, he lost only six bouts, winning an impressive nine by knockout or technical knockout.
Prepping for the Featherweight Title
By 1906, he was sparring regularly with Battling Nelson, a lightweight world champion and training partner, who sang his praises. Nelson once told a reporter prior to Kelly's bout with Tommy O'Toole, "He sparred with me two and three times a day when I was doing my training for my bout with Terry McGovern...Kelly is the hardest little hitter I ever bumped up against. He has two good hands and they are ever ready to mix it up with you..."
In the spring of 1906, he knocked out competent club fighters Jack Flanigan, Abe Hollandersky, and Barney Abel in one round at the Metropolitan Athletic Club in Manhattan. The New York Evening World wrote in a promo for his next bout with George Hoey, that "Kelly is after a bout for the Featherweight Championship with Abe Attell and to demonstrate his worth is meeting the best feathers in this city. His path so far has been a rosy one. In Hoey he tackles a tough proposition, and if he scores decisively his claim to a fight with Attell will be merited." On March 30, 1906, he defeated George Hoey in the third round at the famed Sharkey Athletic Club in Manhattan. Only two years later, the Sharkey A. C. would be the setting for what may be considered America's greatest boxing painting, George Bellows, Stag at Sharkey's.
The Evening World wrote after his match with Kelly, that "Hoey is a rugged lad who likes to fight in close, his specialty being swapping punches at close range. The World went on to note that "in this style he (Hoey) met his master in Kelly, who would lead with a left jab and then tear in with head down, working both hands like piston rods for his opponent's mid-section." Shortly before his bout with Attell, Kelly had an important win against Kid Beebe on November 22, 1907, which he won on a disqualification. Beebe was a prolific boxer with over 250 career fights. He once beat Jack Britton and fought the great welterweight Leo Houck. Beebe may have had a disadvantage against Kelly due to his short stature. In May and November 1906, Kelly fought Tommy O'Toole, who in September 1909 would also contend for the Featherweight Crown against Attell.
Three attempts at the Featherweight Championship
In a buildup to the Featherweight Championship, many Kelly fans were optimistic about his chances with Attell, due to his past performance. The Los Angeles Herald wrote, "some enthusiastic Kelly men profess to believe that he will enter the ring a favorite over Attell...Kelly is hailed as the successor to Terry McGovern and there is reason for it. He resembles the once terrible one in many ways. He has the same aggressive appearance, is stoutly built on the best of fighting lines and is a tremendous hitter for a boy of his size. He is a featherweight from his chest down, but his arms are almost as heavily muscled as those of a welterweight." But it was not to be.