Training with the Wolfslair Academy located in his hometown of Liverpool, England, Paul Kelly is a rugged, hard nosed fighter currently competing in the UFC. Having spent the majority of his career fighting competitively at welterweight and middleweight, physically Kelly will be very strong at 155 pounds after making the decision to drop to lightweight. Sporting an overall record of 9-2, Kelly is a four year veteran of the sport having fought professionally since the age of twenty one.

Kelly is a very aggressive fighter on his feet, who is willing to stand toe-to toe and slug it out as he showcased in the first thirty seconds of his memorable UFC debut against Paul Taylor. Tough as nails, he displays a great chin and is not afraid to take a punch, constantly pushing forward and pressing the action. Initially known as more of a brawler, Kelly has shown greatly improving boxing skills, most recently in bouts with Roli Delgado and Troy Mandaloniz. In those fights Kelly showed much improved defensive skills - keeping his hands up, and chin down as well as showing improving footwork and head movement. Kelly is beginning to display a varied boxing attack on his feet with his fast hands, good straight right and excellent left hook, and does a good job of mixing up his strikes and working over his opponents' head and body as well as showing good dirty boxing skills in the clinch. A good example of that variation was shown in his fight with Troy Mandaloniz whom Kelly punished in close with a series of brutal body shots, setting the tone for much of the fight. Kelly is far from a technician and still has much work to do on his standup (as his bout with Denis Siver showed) but he is taking steps in the right direction.

On the ground, Kelly looks to gain top position where he is quickly earning a reputation for his ground and pound attack. Working hard from inside his opponents guard, Kelly stays tight to his opponent's body - controlling them well and has proven adept at opening up with a consistent, and at times, relentless barrage of strikes on his opposition. Particularly effective with his elbows, Kelly is very good at cutting through his opposition defense with vicious elbow strikes that are delivered with power and precision. Kelly battered Troy Mandaloniz on the ground over the three rounds of their fight and opened up a series of cuts that left Mandaloniz's face a bloody mess, and was also able to open up a nasty cut on Paul Taylor's forehead with his fierce ground attack. Although he has proven good at delivering strikes from the top, Kelly will definitely need to continue working on his overall grappling game. He had his back taken multiple times in his bout with Roli Delgado (who is a BJJ black belt), had his back taken and was mounted by Troy Mandaloniz (who isn't known for grappling prowess), and was outworked and submitted on the ground by Marcus Davis. Also, while Kelly has displayed decent takedowns and takedown defense, he will need to continue working on his wrestling abilities for two reasons. First, so that he can easier put himself in a position to inflict his ground and pound, and secondly because he has not shown much off his back as of yet. Over his career Kelly has shown improving grappling skills and submission's awareness, but will need to continue working on his overall ground game in order to fully round out his grappling game.