Former UFC fighter Paull ‘Tellys’ Kelly has been convicted of trafficking heroin in the UK.
After a jury found the fighter guilty the judge presiding over the case stated his belief that Kelly was the head of the illegal operation and that he would now be facing a long prison sentence.
Kelly was arrested in the summer of last year along with a friend after a series of raids which uncovered heroin, marijuana and large sums of money.
During his defense Kelly had argued that as a professional fighter he was earning significant sums of money and so had no need to be involved in dealing drugs, but the prosecution countered that his career had unraveled in recent years.
Kelly’s UFC career had come to an end in February of 2011 after a loss to Donald Cerrone, though he did claim the the ‘Fight Of The Night’ bonus on that occasion.
In total Kelly produced a 5-4 record in the UFC over a three year stint with the organization. Afterwards he suffered another loss, this time in the Super Fight League promotion just a month before he was arrested.
While awaiting his trial Kelly had gone on to fight a further two times, picking up two wins on the UK circuit after making a move up to welterweight.
However, it’s likely we’ll never know if this was the start of a new chapter in his career as the 28 year-old is going to be sitting behind bars for the forseeable future with supplying a class A drug like heroin carrying a potential maximum sentence of life in prison.
