{"id":105967,"date":"2026-06-03T06:34:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T06:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T22:02:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T22:02:01","slug":"tony-kelley","status":"publish","type":"fighter_profile","link":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Kelley"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Tony \u00ab\u00a0PrimeTime\u00a0\u00bb Kelley : le karat\u00e9ka de Shreveport qui avait failli s&rsquo;imposer \u00e0 l&rsquo;UFC<\/h2>\n<h3>Un d\u00e9but tardif, une trajectoire atypique<\/h3>\n<p>Tony Kelley n&rsquo;a pas grandi dans une salle de combat. C&rsquo;est \u00e0 19 ans, cherchant un cadre et de la discipline, qu&rsquo;il pousse la porte d&rsquo;un cours de jiu-jitsu \u00e0 Shreveport, en Louisiane. Ce que d&rsquo;autres font gamin, il le fait adulte \u2014 et \u00e7a ne l&#8217;emp\u00eachera pas d&rsquo;aller jusqu&rsquo;\u00e0 l&rsquo;UFC. Entre-temps, il travaille comme environnementaliste dans une r\u00e9serve de zones humides, profile assez rare pour un futur combattant professionnel. Il signe son premier combat pro le 15 septembre 2012 et construit son bagage technique sur les deux disciplines qui structurent son jeu : la frappe via le Kyokushin, dont il obtient la ceinture noire, et le grappling avec un grade de ceinture violette en BJJ.<\/p>\n<h3>La mont\u00e9e en puissance sur le circuit r\u00e9gional<\/h3>\n<p>Kelley passe plusieurs ann\u00e9es \u00e0 se frotter aux circuits r\u00e9gionaux am\u00e9ricains \u2014 Legacy FC, WFF \u2014 en empilant les finishes. Sur onze combats professionnels, il termine 75 % de ses adversaires avant la limite, avec un m\u00e9lange de KO\/TKO et de soumissions (\u00e9tranglements guillotine, rear naked choke, shoulder choke). La seule d\u00e9faite notable de cette p\u00e9riode intervient le 1er juillet 2016 face \u00e0 Kevin Aguilar, dans un combat \u00e0 cinq rounds sold\u00e9 par d\u00e9cision partag\u00e9e. Une contre-performance qui le ralentit, sans le stopper.<\/p>\n<h3>L&rsquo;UFC : deux ans et quatre combats<\/h3>\n<p>Le 15 ao\u00fbt 2020, \u00e0 l&rsquo;UFC 252, Kelley fait ses d\u00e9buts dans l&rsquo;Octogone face \u00e0 Kai Kamaka III. Il perd aux points, mais le combat est si engag\u00e9 que les deux hommes repartent avec le bonus Fight of the Night. D\u00e9but cruel, mais r\u00e9v\u00e9lateur du personnage. Deux mois plus tard, le 10 octobre 2020, il repart avec sa premi\u00e8re victoire \u00e0 l&rsquo;UFC en dominant Ali Al-Qaisi \u00e0 la d\u00e9cision. \u00c0 l&rsquo;UFC 269, le 11 d\u00e9cembre 2021, c&rsquo;est Randy Costa qui prend un TKO au deuxi\u00e8me round \u00e0 4h15. Kelley est \u00e0 2-1 \u00e0 l&rsquo;UFC et son nom commence \u00e0 circuler s\u00e9rieusement dans le bantamweight.<\/p>\n<p>La chute arrive le 18 juin 2022 : Adrian Yanez le r\u00e8gle en 3 minutes 49 au premier round. Kelley avait en plus rat\u00e9 la limite de poids ce jour-l\u00e0, montant sur la balance \u00e0 137,5 lbs au lieu de 135. L&rsquo;UFC ne lui renouvelle pas son contrat en juillet 2022. Bilan sur la grande sc\u00e8ne : 2 victoires, 2 d\u00e9faites, un record total de 8-3.<\/p>\n<h3>Le style : finisseur propre, grappleur sous-estim\u00e9<\/h3>\n<p>Sur ses huit victoires, six sont des finishes \u2014 trois par KO\/TKO, trois par soumission. La puissance de frappe vient de sa base Kyokushin, un karat\u00e9 de contact int\u00e9gral qui forge des coups solides et une r\u00e9sistance physique certaine. Son grappling de purple belt BJJ lui a permis de choper des soumissions sur le circuit r\u00e9gional. \u00c0 l&rsquo;UFC, sa pr\u00e9cision de frappe s&rsquo;\u00e9tablit \u00e0 47 % et il absorbe un volume similaire \u2014 signe d&rsquo;un combattant qui aime les \u00e9changes mais dont la d\u00e9fense reste perfectible \u00e0 ce niveau.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sources-article\"><strong>Sources :<\/strong> <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tony_Kelley\">Wikipedia<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ufc.com\/athlete\/tony-kelley\">UFC.com<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/theallstar.io\/ufc-fighter-record\/tony-primetime-kelley\/\">The AllStar<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tony \u00ab\u00a0PrimeTime\u00a0\u00bb Kelley, bantamweight am\u00e9ricain (8-3), ceinture noire Kyokushin et purple belt BJJ, pass\u00e9 par l&rsquo;UFC de 2020 \u00e0 2022 avec deux victoires dont un TKO sur Randy Costa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":102779,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"fighter_category":[69975],"fighter_tag":[],"class_list":["post-105967","fighter_profile","type-fighter_profile","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","fighter_category-featherweight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tony Kelley - Biographie MMA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Biographie compl\u00e8te de Tony Kelley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tony Kelley - Biographie MMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Biographie compl\u00e8te de Tony Kelley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grizzliz\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/people\/Grizzliz\/61585516850193\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-20T22:02:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1804.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"254\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Dur\u00e9e de lecture estim\u00e9e\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/\",\"name\":\"Tony Kelley - Biographie MMA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1804.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-03T06:34:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-20T22:02:01+00:00\",\"description\":\"Biographie compl\u00e8te de Tony Kelley\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1804.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1804.png\",\"width\":350,\"height\":254},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fighter Profiles\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter_profile\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Tony Kelley\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/\",\"name\":\"Media Grizzliz | Club de Sport | Combattant\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Grizzliz\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3.png\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"Grizzliz\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/people\/Grizzliz\/61585516850193\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/grizzliz.store\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tony Kelley - Biographie MMA","description":"Biographie compl\u00e8te de Tony Kelley","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/","og_locale":"fr_FR","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tony Kelley - Biographie MMA","og_description":"Biographie compl\u00e8te de Tony Kelley","og_url":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/","og_site_name":"Grizzliz","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/people\/Grizzliz\/61585516850193\/","article_modified_time":"2026-06-20T22:02:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":350,"height":254,"url":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1804.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Dur\u00e9e de lecture estim\u00e9e":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/","url":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/","name":"Tony Kelley - Biographie MMA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1804.png","datePublished":"2026-06-03T06:34:34+00:00","dateModified":"2026-06-20T22:02:01+00:00","description":"Biographie compl\u00e8te de Tony Kelley","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"fr-FR","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"fr-FR","@id":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1804.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1804.png","width":350,"height":254},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/tony-kelley\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fighter Profiles","item":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter_profile\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Tony Kelley"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/","name":"Media Grizzliz | Club de Sport | Combattant","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"fr-FR"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/#organization","name":"Grizzliz","url":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"fr-FR","@id":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3.png","width":1000,"height":1000,"caption":"Grizzliz"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/people\/Grizzliz\/61585516850193\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/grizzliz.store\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fighter_profile\/105967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fighter_profile"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/fighter_profile"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"fighter_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fighter_category?post=105967"},{"taxonomy":"fighter_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fighter_tag?post=105967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}