Heavyweight hopeful David Adeleye is laser focused on his return to boxing on July 10, but admitted that 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, admitted 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 said,
“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 21, 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.”
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