Fighting for the South Bank Amateur boxing club in Middlesbrough, Vallily was formerly on the books of Middlesbrough Football Club until disciplinary issues meant that his career in football ended prematurely. Vallily claimed that he started boxing after getting into trouble when he was a kid, and that what he would be doing if he were not boxing would be "not worth thinking about". In February 2006, he was sentenced to 4 years in prison following a knife attack. Halfway into his sentence he was released and started to concentrate on his boxing career.
Vallily was part of the England team that competed at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Picked at the 91kg Heavyweight category, Vallily fought his way to the final, defeating Dominic Winrow of the Isle of Man in the first round, Arsene Foukou of Cameroon in the quarter-finals and gaining a walkover against Awusone Yekeni of Ghana in the semifinals. In the final he claimed the gold medal with a first round stoppage over Northern Ireland's Steven Ward after knocking him to the canvas, having quickly established a 6-1 lead. Speaking of Vallily's performance, coach Rob McCracken said "He's frighteningly good. We've got two years to work with him and there's a real possibility he could win the Olympics".
