David Adeleye's trainer Adam Booth says he's 'not interested' in training fighters who can't achieve world level success as the heavyweight prepares to fight for British honours for the second time in his career this weekend in Manchester.
Currently sitting pretty as the English champion, Adeleye (13-1, 12 KOs) faces Jeamie 'TKV' Tshikeva (8-1, 5 KOs) for the vacant Lonsdale belt on Saturday night at the Co-Op Live Arena in the co-main event of Frank Warren's first show with DAZN.
Adeleye was a hard-hitting prospect when he first came through as a professional but came unstuck when he challenged Fabio Wardley for the British title in October 2023, losing by seventh-round knockout.
West Londoner Adeleye is now with Booth, who trained David Haye to cruiserweight and heavyweight world titles. Booth also previously coached George Groves, Andy Lee and Michael Conlan, who all won or challenged for world titles in their careers.
Following Adeleye's defeat to Wardley, he changed things up and hired Booth as his new trainer.
Their first fight together saw Adeleye score a first-round knockout win over Solomon Dacres, who had never previously been beaten.
Booth saw that night exactly what he wanted from Adeleye, and believes he has the right attitude to follow in the footsteps of the fighters that came before him at the gym.
Booth told Queensberry Promotions: "I'm not interested in anything that's not world level. Whether somebody succeeds in winning a world championship, challenges for it, whatever it is, that's the level I'm looking for and nothing but.
"I wouldn't be working with him if I didn't believe I could help him achieve that world level status.
"He's tough, he's got a good attitude, he hits hard, he's an athlete that's actually starting to understand how to go about things, how to be a professional, how to work on things.
"What I'm really impressed with is there's a difference between gym and fight night, you've got the gym, the changing room on fight night and then the fit itself... one thing I took from the [Solomon Dacres] fight is that he's a fight night fighter. And that's enjoyable to see. Sometimes you don't know until you get there.
"It's a really healthy relationship between coach and fighter, I know what it's like to be holding pads and to be in front of someone that has world class power, and I recognise that in him, he absolutely has world class power."
Elsewhere on Saturday night's card, Joe Joyce and Filip Hrgovic will clash in the main event, while Delicious Orie makes his professional debut months after competing at the Paris Olympics for Team GB.