Paul Kelly claimed he was on the straight and narrow but years later he was back in court

A former UFC fighter and convicted drug dealer who claimed he had turned his life around has been jailed after he admitted to a plethora of charges on the first day of his trial. Paul Kelly was once a professional mixed martial arts fighter, competing in the UFC and fighting in venues such as London's 02 Arena.

Originally from West Derby, the 42-year-old, now of no fixed abode, went professional and fought nine times in the UFC until a sophisticated surveillance operation took place on a drug gang in Liverpool which saw the fighter jailed. Kelly was said to have been earning as much as £100,000 as an MMA fighter when he was found to have been the "brains" of a drug operation which he set up with his childhood best friend.

The operation was snared when police connected them to the dangerous street gang Croxteth Young Guns (CYG), with Kelly and his friend suspected of supplying them with drugs.

The CYG, armed with guns and grenades, fought a gang war with rivals in Norris Green and were behind a string of shootings and arson attacks across the city.

Following a Merseyside Police operation, a courier was found with 1.5kg of heroin, worth around £100,000, which saw Kelly charged and found guilty of conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

He was sentenced to 13 years in prison back in 2013 but was released on licence after just six years before claiming to have turned his life around.

Despite his claims to have become reformed and returning to the cage in 2020, Kelly was back in Liverpool Crown Court on October 19 this year where he was due to face a trial accused of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, two counts of damaging property, disclosing private sexual photographs, breach of non-molestation order, and two counts of acting in breach of a restraining order.

As he was due to stand trial, Kelly changed his pleas to guilty before being sentenced on the spot to four years in prison and handed three indefinite restraining orders.

During his spell in prison following his drugs conviction, Kelly had stints in both HMP Liverpool and HMP Garth in Lancashire. In 2017 he was put on a work placement at a Merseyside garage, before being released from prison on licence.

Speaking to the ECHO in 2020, Kelly said: "In prison you have no dignity, self-respect, humanity. You're just a number.

"It's given me a big appreciation of life, but it's also made me a harder, tougher, colder person. When you're in prison and you're away from your family, you can't show fear, emotion."

He added: "When I was out on the town, partying, everyone's your pal. I haven't done that for so long.

"I've been at the highest level of the sport with the highest calibre of fighter in the sport. I've been there and done it.

"My focus is now on my family. I love a big family. There are not many big families like ours anymore."