Heavyweight hopeful David Adeleye is laser focused on his return to boxing on July 10 but admits he can’t wait to get back in the ring with Daniel Dubois when the time is right.
The 23-year-old Notting Hill banger sparred with Dubois when they were teenagers at the famous Dale Youth Club and, prior to the coronavirus pandemic, had been brought in to get ‘Dynamite’ ready for his upcoming bout with Joe Joyce.
Adeleye, however, admits that he held a little back in their latest encounter in case the two ever meet professionally.
“No, I didn’t give it my all” he told interviewer Dev Sahni, “I went down there and it was more like learning – like ‘oh, this is what he’s doing’.”
That’s not to say the hulking brute didn’t try and win the battle anyway, confessing that he and Dubois were both keen to “make a statement.”
“We tried to make a statement. He’s trying to show that he’s better than me, I’m trying to show that I’m better than him. So, we kinda just go at it.
“The first minute of the first round Martin Bowers and my coach were like ‘listen, just get to boxing’ as we were both trying to show our muscles. We both feel like we’ve got points to prove.”
No stranger to excellent sparring partners, having helped prepare Tyson Fury ahead of his second bout with Deontay Wilder, Adeleye hopes that as the coronavirus situation eases he’ll get a chance to get back in there with Dubois.
“It was a good spar. I went down to the Peacock gym and got some good rounds in. I remember Martin Bowers (Daniel’s Head Coach) saying afterwards ‘that first spar was kind of like you guys just going at it’.
“It was good and there is probably going to be many more to come. He’s going to need the work, I’m going to need the work.”
Confident Adeleye made his professional debut on December 21st, scoring a convincing knockout victory in Round 1 over the overwhelmed Lithuanian Dmitrij Kalinovskij.
Coincidentally, that fight was on the undercard of Daniel Dubois’ scrap against Japanese superstar Kyotaro Fujimoto but Adeleye doesn’t think it’ll be long before he’s headlining shows of his own.
“Honestly, I put myself at the very top of the division, especially in this country.”
Asked if there were any British boxers he’d like the chance to test his skills against, he was clear that it didn’t matter who was put in front of him – he plans on taking them all out.
“There’s a few fighters on the domestic scene that I look at and think ‘y’know, this will be a good little match-up for me’. But, I just let it play out.
“I just focus on myself, stay in my lane and when it’s my time it’ll come.”
July 10 will mark Adeleye’s second professional outing, this time in the unusual surroundings of BT Sport Studio’s with no crowd present.
Hall-of-Fame promoter Frank Warren is bringing British boxing back on that date behind closed doors due to the current coronavirus restrictions and whilst Adeleye is looking forward to the opportunity, he doesn’t think it’ll affect his performance.
Instead, he thinks his time in Las Vegas sparring Tyson Fury is going to have the bigger impact come fight night.
“You’ll see some different things. I think you’ll see better boxing ability, you’ll see me picking my shots a bit more.
“What you won’t see different is the knockout, that’s definitely going to come.”
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David Adeleye was speaking to Dev Sahni on Queensberry Promotions’ YouTube show ‘The Lockdown Lowdown’ – video available here
