Even the most stacked of boxing cards are not immune to a little last-minute drama. In the course of a week, two bouts on Riyadh Season’s The Last Crescendo event were thrown into question, but quickly salvaged.

On Tuesday night, Josh Padley received a phone call he could have never imagined would be coming. After upsetting Mark Chamberlain on the Joshua-Dubois undercard last September, Padley likely assumed he’d have spent the next few weeks fielding offers from promoters everywhere. Instead, he simply returned to his day job as an electrician in Yorkshire, staying in the boxing gym and remaining in shape through CrossFit and Hyrox races. But with Floyd Schofield falling ill, a ranked opponent was vital for Shakur Stevenson in order to not only keep Stevenson on the show, but in a world title fight as well.

Despite his relative obscurity, Padley is the No. 12-ranked lightweight by the WBC, making him viable, and as he told The Ring’s Anson Wainwright, at 10:20 PM that night he was texting his boss to let him know he’d need some time off. He’d still need to finish the next day’s shift however. On social media, Padley posted a video of himself, toolkit in tow and reflective jacket still on, getting into a van to head to the airport to start his whirlwind trip to Riyadh.

As astonishingly last-minute as Padley’s booking was—one of boxing’s “great saves,” as Eddie Hearn boasted—at least he arrived in Riyadh in time for the press conference and weigh-in. At the time of this writing, Martin Bakole had not yet arrived in Saudi Arabia for his bout against Joseph Parker.

In fact, at around 3:30 PM ET on Friday, DAZN’s social media posted an image of Bakole preparing to board for the last leg of his Scotland-to-Riyadh trek. On less than 48 hours notice, Bakole, The Ring’s No. 6-rated heavyweight, will replace IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois and face former titleholder Joseph Parker in one of the card’s feature bouts. Although the bout will no longer be a heavywight title bout of course, the insertion of Bakole has injected a new wave of buzz into the discourse around the event.

Bakole has built a reputation as one of the most “feared” fighters in the division, stemming from a series of starring tales in which Bakole has claimed to have hurt or stopped a litany of current top heavyweights, but also his recent performances on Riyadh Season events. In 2023, he battered and stopped longtime contender Carlos Takam, and more recently, he burst the bubble of prospect-turned-contender Jared Anderson, once thought of as the United States’ next best hope for a heavyweight title.

The knockout victory over Anderson was a completion of a wholesale rebrand for Bakole, who was written off by many back in 2018 following a loss to Michael Hunter. Excitement around Bakole is so high now, in fact, that some sportsbooks have him as low as a +135 underdog despite the fact that he was still on a plane while Parker was probably enjoying his second post-weigh-in meal.

Though Padley and Bakole are true buzzer-beater replacements relative to the field, promoters have been in even more desperate situations on big platforms and managed to fill the void. The most infamous of such situations is Tim Tomashek’s last-second WBO world heavyweight title shot against Tommy Morrison. Tomashek was on standby in case Morrison’s originally scheduled opponent, Mike Williams, withdrew from the fight 90 minutes beforehand. Tomashek was the “break in case of emergency” opponent, although not in the way we’ve come to understand them in a post-COVID boxing world, where the prospective replacement is generally stashed on the undercard in a winnable fight to ensure they are a) present, b) fully trained and c) able to capitalize on their time training even if the emergency never arises. Tomachek, rather, was in the stands enjoying concession stand offerings, and had consumed several beers, fully expecting to collect his $2500 stipend from Top Rank and enjoy the show. Though he was stopped in four rounds after remaining on his stool, he enjoyed a full fifteen minutes of fame afterwards, including an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Isidro Garcia left with more than just a few tongue-in-cheek talk show bookings in a similar scenario in 1999. Except unlike Tomashek, he was in the arena eating concession stand food and drinking soda on his own accord, hoping to scout the scheduled WBO flyweight world title fight Jose Lopez and Alejandro Montiel, two fighters he’d hoped to face in the near future. That future was now, unbeknownst to him. According to the Los Angeles Times, Montiel was “experiencing numbness” and could no longer fight. Promoter Ricardo Maldonado had spotted Garcia in the casino, and called his manager Frank Espinoza—who did not know Garcia was there--to ask if he could fight. After the initial offer of $10,000 was bumped to $28,000, Garcia decided it was worth it to give it a go, even if he’d been training scarcely and had a belly full of treats and cola. He borrowed trunks, a groin protector and shoes from fighters on the undercard, formed a hastily purchased mouth guard in a hot cup of casino coffee, went out and won the WBO title.

Though last-minute adaptations to highly anticipated bouts can indeed be a bummer for the audience, they also create a set of circumstances for some of boxing’s greatest dramas. One could even argue that last minute replacements have helped shape the heavyweight landscape in its past few eras, or at least been central to the retelling of them.

Tomashek’s bout against Morrison was the precursor to The Duke’s shocking loss to Michael Bentt next time out, which spoiled an $8 million bout against Lennox Lewis. A few years prior, Bert Cooper gave a scare to Evander Holyfield on just a few days’ notice in replacement of Francesco Damiani, setting the table for The Real Deal’s series with Riddick Bowe and eventual upset of Mike Tyson. In 2000, Chris Byrd replaced Razor Ruddock on ten days’ notice and stopped Vitali Klitschko, which was avenged by Vitali’s brother Wladimir, setting off the beginning of an all-time great run. Vitali would have a legacy-enhancing last-minute effort of his own three years later in a bloody battle against Lennox Lewis, which would be Lewis’ swansong. And of course, most recently, Andy Ruiz shocked the world at Madison Square Garden when he knocked out Anthony Joshua in 2019. In the eyes of the oddsmakers at least, Bakole adding his name to that list and changing the course of this heavyweight era would barely even be surprising.

So while Bakole and Padley haven’t even had time to examine the menu—not from the concession stand--the table is nonetheless set with the potential for something special to be served on Saturday.