Pacquiao, younger brother of the more illustrious Manny Pacquiao, dropped Kelley with a left to the chin seconds before the end of the third round and finished his American opponent off with a thundering left hook to the ribcage in the fourth.
Kelley, a two-time former champion who has faced the likes of Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, was in pain as he hit the canvass with that body shot and was counted out by referee Steve Willis. The end came at 1:24 of the fourth round.
“Bobby followed our strategy all the way,” Mike Koncz, who co-manages Bobby, said. “We wanted him to go to the body the first three rounds and then take it from there. Everything worked out.”
The 26-year-old Pacquiao improved to 27-11-3 with 12 KOs.
The 38-year-old Kelley, a native of Brooklyn New York, dropped to 58-7-2.
It was a crushing body shot that Kelley took. Even after the referee counted him out, he was in pain and remained on his knees for almost two minutes.
He was knocked out for the fifth time in seven defeats. Pacquiao, who is undefeated in all his fights in America thus far, wrested the title from Carlos Navarro in June of last year.
The General Santos City fighter followed that up with a huge victory over Carlos Hernandez in October of the same year in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Although that victory over Hernandez was shrouded with controversy, Pacquiao made sure there wouldn’t be any this time around.
Kelley, a switch fighter, dictated the first round with good shots and rocked Pacquiao with a left uppercut in the second.
But Pacquiao took the initiative in the third round with good body shots, although he was given a warning by the referee for hitting below the belt.
Towards the end of the third, Pacquiao fired a 1-2 combo and dropped Kelley with a left.
