Josh Kelly may have boxed just three times in the last three years but his Wasserman promoters are cooking up an ambitious plan to get him out that many times before 2025 is up.

Kelly’s last outing came at Wembley Stadium in September when he edged a majority decision against late stand-in Ishmael Davis after his initial opponent Liam Smith had pulled out of the fight.

It was the 16th victory of his stop-start career, which turns eight years old next month, and it seems that the 31-year-old is now in a hurry to make up for lost time. Despite that victory over Davis taking place up at middleweight, Kelly remains highly ranked at 154lbs; he is No.4 with the IBF, three with the WBO and 11 with the WBC.

Now promoter Kalle Sauerland says they are on the verge of announcing Kelly’s next fight, which is expected to take place in June, before two more later in the year.

“He will be out three times this year,” Sauerland told The Ring. “So he needs to get out before the summer.

“So if you work on that basis, let's say it could be June, September, December. But of course, September and December could be replaced by one massive fight instead.

“The plan is as simple as that. That's what we're looking at doing. He's in a bit of a tricky position right now because he's very high up in two sanctioning bodies and there's things going on there with the mandatory shots.

“We have to pick our timing quite carefully here, which means you've got to be careful when you're active and how you're active. He's now at a time where he's very close to the top of the world rankings, if not top of the world rankings. So he's ready for that big moment.

"But that can make things tricky. You can't announce three months out of a fight because if you're in a fight, they'll just go over you in the rankings and you’ll miss your chance. It's brutal. You've got to watch it with the IBF, because they're our very good friends, and we've had many great champions with them over the years, but you have to make sure you aren't in a fight when they suddenly call to offer you a shot at the world title.”

In fact, it was this time last year that the same thing happened with a potential shot at Terence Crawford, Sauerland said.

“Last year at Easter, I'll never forget we had the WBO calling us and saying, ‘is Josh ready to fight Crawford for the vacant spot?’ So it was like this mad weekend and that can happen at any time.”

There could also be world title opportunities up at middleweight should he decide to campaign there and Sauerland has previously spoken of his interest in matching Kelly with Denzel Bentley.

“That fight is still super interesting,” he added. “But there's also a small fight happening at Tottenham at the end of April between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn at middleweight. In that vicinity, there's also Kell Brook putting pictures up of him training again. There's still a possibility of a fight with Liam Smith.

“There's lots in that mix. So that's the space that we've got our eyes on with Josh and we can't wait to kick it off for him this year."