The planned fight between Josh Padley and Jaouad Belmehdi now has a home.

Matchroom Boxing announced on Monday that Padley and Belmedhi will meet on January 31 for the European junior lightweight title. The bout will take place on the undercard of the fight between Bakhram Murtazaliev and Josh Kelly at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle on DAZN.

Padley (17-1, 5 KOs) and Belmehdi (23-2-3, 11 KOs) had been linked for a fight since November, and they can finally move forward with a firm date on the calendar.

Padley, a 30-year-old from Yorkshire, had a momentous 2025 campaign highlighted by filling in as a fight-week replacement against WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson in February.

Although Padley was dropped thrice and stopped inside nine rounds, he gained the respect of his peers for taking on the seemingly impossible assignment on short notice once original Stevenson opponent Floyd Schofield Jr. pulled out, citing illness. Padley came into the Stevenson pitting having given Mark Chamberlain his first career defeat, and he followed his own first loss with a knockout win against Marko Cvetanovic in April and a unanimous decision win against Reece Bellotti in October.

As the handsome purses piled up, mostly from the six-figure sum he earned from the Stevenson fight, Padley announced he was able to step back from his day job as a full-time electrician and focus on his fighting career instead.

Belmehdi is looking to spoil Padley's rags-to-riches story and spark his own career. The 27-year-old has primarily fought in his native France and is coming off a 12-round unanimous decision loss to Can Xu in August.