Meet Jay Kelly
Twenty years of fighting. Most of it happened outside the ring.
Jay Kelly is a Canadian professional fighter, boxing coach and entrepreneur from Brockville, Ontario. His professional career ran for twenty years, from his first pro fight in October 2006 to his retirement in October 2026.
In 2012 he fractured his T12 vertebra. He spent the next four years rebuilding and returned to professional boxing in 2016. A year later he competed in the Team Canada vs. Team Jamaica Contender Series.
In 2018 he suffered a serious traumatic brain injury. He came back from that too, and in March 2024 he returned to professional competition with BKFC. Along the way there were more comebacks, plus personal and financial setbacks that never made a fight card.
With his wife, Samantha, Jay built Legends Boxing Academy in Brockville. It started as a place to train. It became a community where people build confidence, discipline and belief in themselves.
Now he is building an international speaking career. Jay doesn’t claim to have beaten every struggle. He is still growing and still chasing big goals, and he speaks as someone in the middle of that work. His talks are about resilience, identity, the people you keep close, and having the courage to build a life you actually want.
- Career
- 20 years as a professional fighter
- Comebacks
- Spinal fracture and a traumatic brain injury
- Built
- Legends Boxing Academy, with Samantha