David Adeleye: London powerhouse who helped fine tune Tyson Fury for title win warns he's coming for glory

INTERVIEW
In focus: David Adeleye
Getty Images
Tony Mogan17 April 2020

Just a couple of weeks after his professional debut, David Adeleye was being whisked away to Las Vegas to help Tyson Fury prepare for the biggest night of his life.

The London heavyweight, who grew up in the shadow of the Grenfell Tower in Ladbroke Grove, needed just one round to blast his way through Lithuanian journeyman Dmitrij Kalinovskij on his big night last December.

That huge punching power saw the 23-year-old prospect enlisted by Fury's fight camp ahead of 'The Gypsy King's' bid to return to the summit of boxing, identified as the man who could replicate Deontay Wilder's vicious offence in the ring ahead of their WBC heavyweight title rematch in February.

"They knew I had a good right hand," Adeleye told Standard Sport. "I was going out there and being myself and letting my hands go. They said, 'have fun, do what you do.'"

Sparring with the world's no.1 heavyweight was another step in his education, one that saw him juggle a successful amateur career with university.

The 23-year-old eased to victory on his pro debut just before Christmas Photo: Getty Images
Getty Images

After first walking into the Dale Youth Club as a 6ft 1in 14-year-old, Adeleye completed his degree in Business Management at Wolverhampton University in 2018 - the same year he won the senior ABAs - before shifting his focus solely to the professional sport, fulfilling a promise he had made to himself.

"I was always in the educational system, it was the norm, I’d go to school, go home and then train. It was the same in college and it was the same in uni. I wanted to get the degree out of the way first, to have that in my arsenal and then go focus solely on boxing.

"I was lucky, some of my lecturers knew I boxed and they knew how serious I was about it, they gave me some leniency to go back to London and train before going back up to meet my deadlines. So I was making it work. I never missed a deadline.

"Now I can focus on my boxing. But with the degree it opens up a lot of doors."

The next step in his growth as a fighter is on hold, however. Adeleye was poised to fight again on 11 April on a card headlined by two other London heavyweights in Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce. But with boxing now at a standstill due to the coronavirus pandemic, he has been left to wait.

While another fight camp is likely to be needed ahead of that fight, Adeleye has effectively been in camp since the start of the year, helping fine tune Fury for what would eventually be a devastatingly comprehensive win over Wilder in Sin City.

Vegas is a world away from north Kensington and experiencing the set up of a world class fight camp and working alongside world class operators in Fury and his team has given the hard-hitting Londoner the experience he feels will give him the edge over other prospects standing in his way.

"That was the best experience I could possibly have," he continued. "There is a lot more to boxing than just fighting. A lot more goes into it and the team is just as important. There were small tips and things you see that make you think I will know what to do when I get to that level.

"It's a good feeling when you know you helped. And experience is the greatest teacher. Most of the people I'll come across now will have nowhere near that level of experience under their belt. It will be good for me. I think I will have an advantage."

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Confident without believing his own hype, Adeleye is fully aware of the long road ahead of him on his journey to become heavyweight champion. And while he knows he has everything to prove, it doesn't stop him wondering what waits for him later down the line.

"I look at the up-and-coming boxers who are maybe on the same sort of trajectory and experience level of me and it does make me think, we might be there at the top at same sort of time, the guys I will be fighting for titles. I definitely do look at them and see their attributes, their attitudes, what they are bringing to the table and how I would counter and use my own attributes against them."

Adeleye eager to follow in Dubois' footsteps Photo: Getty Images
Getty Images

One of those future opponents could be fellow Londoner Dubois, with the pair both promoted by Frank Warren. Three years ago, Dubois was in the exact same position as Adeleye. 14 fights later, he is one or two more wins away from forcing a mandatory title shot. It's a trajectory he is eager to replicate.

"That's the blueprint I want, 100 per cent. How fast they move me - I'm not fussed, I'll fight anybody they bring to the table. It would be good for me. If Daniel fights for a title next year, that's about three or four years into his career, that's what I want. The timing would be perfect."

Boxing craves those passing of the torch moments more than any other sport. Adeleye was 20 when Anthony Joshua provided one of those seminal scenes, finishing Wladimir Klitschko in front of 80,000 people at Wembley Stadium and it is something he has thought about recreating.

With old sparring partner Fury adamant he will retire after his next two fights, 'The Gypsy King' may have sailed off into the sunset by the time Adeleye has reached world title level. But he hopes the likes of Joshua and Deontay Wilder are still on the scene when he gets there.

"I hope they do stay on, I'm 23, in four years time, I'm definitely going to be in world title contention, if not before that. God willing it is before that. I was coming into the game and they were on top of it at that time - it would be cool to go in there fighting the guys I was looking up at when I first started boxing. These are fights I would love to be involved in."

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