David Adeleye had just been asked by BoxingScene about his trainer Adam Booth’s assertion that he “hated” him that particular Friday afternoon at Booth’s gym.

“He just put me through a crazy workout, and it took me a long time to recover,” Adeleye wearily responded following a warm smile. “But, yeah, it was good.

After two fights and two stoppage victories under Booth since Adeleye recruited him as his new trainer after his only defeat, by Fabio Wardley in October 2023, he is increasingly showing the familiar hallmarks of a fighter with complete faith in the way he is being guided.

He particularly evokes memories of another heavyweight in Richard Towers, and of the retired Ryan Burnett, and of how inevitable it was that each would appreciate – to the extent they transparently did – Booth’s grasp of psychology and attention to detail. 

He similarly provides a reminder of why it was perhaps inevitable that George Groves, as strong-minded and independent as Booth, would split from his then-trainer and manager, as he did when approaching his peak, and partly why the also independent Chris Eubank Jnr worked under Booth for only the short term.

“I’ll be honest with you – I just play my position,” Adeleye explained. “I let Adam do what he does, and I just do what I do. Whatever he says is what we go for. I don’t even really look into it too much. I just let him do his thing. As his student, I do mine.

“[I’m] way different. Way different. I’m improving a lot of things. It’s funny – I was just saying, I’m training like an all-round athlete. My 100m times are different. I’m beating people in races that I shouldn’t be beating, that are half my weight. I’m gapping in the 100m. So I’ve changed a lot, I’ve changed a lot. Bearing in mind Adam’s been around the sport since a young age, before I was born, so he knows what boxing was like and he knows what boxing is like now, and the transition. So I get the best of both worlds – what it was like before and what it’s like now.

“You’re a creature of your habits, right? So whoever you’re around, you start to develop different sort of things. I’ve changed and I’m around other fighters like Josh Kelly, who are a lot smaller and on the ball – it kind of makes you less lazy. I’m not even a lazy person anyway – I was quite subdued. Now I’m a bit different; I don’t know what it is. I think you just have to be around me to see it. It’s more of a thing for everyone else to see rather than me.”

It is on Saturday evening in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, against Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic that the changes the 28-year-old Adeleye is referencing are likeliest to be seen. 

That he is fighting on the undercard of the contest between Dillian Whyte and the 20-year-old Moses Itauma is in part a reflection of the rebuilding process he has been undergoing since losing to Wardley. He also, more than any other fighter on Saturday evening, is being moved up in level against a dangerous puncher without the attention that fighting in the main event or for a title can bring.

In his first fight under Booth – in December and almost 14 months after losing to Wardley – Adeleye won the English heavyweight title by stopping Solomon Dacres inside a round. If it revealed little about his progress since defeat, his progress also remained a relative mystery against Jeamie Tshikeva, who Adeleye stopped in the sixth to win the British title but in controversial circumstances that somewhat undermined his win.

Beyond his natural athleticism he has shown little in his career to suggest he is capable of competing with the 33-year-old Hrgovic, and yet the respected Booth – typically a both cautious and purposeful matchmaker until believing that his fighters are ready to be truly stepped up – sees in the Croatian an opportunity that Adeleye can seize.

The trainer also explained that he had seen a transformation in his fighter’s approach in comparison to the over-confident figure he had worked with in the build-up to defeating Tshikeva in April. Booth himself once observed Hrgovic’s abilities in training when he was used as a sparring partner for the trainer’s most celebrated fighter David Haye. Itauma may be the rising British heavyweight earning the widest attention and Whyte may be about to prove his highest-profile scalp, but if Hrgovic is the one defeated on Saturday then Adeleye will be the one flying back to London with the most significant win.

“It’s life-changing,” Adeleye says. “It’s a life-changing fight. But these are the fights I’m in it for.

“I liked it. I said yes right away. I suppose it’s one of those opportunities that propels me in the heavyweight rankings and I get to show everyone what I’m really about.

“Hrgovic and Jamie [Tshikeva], innit? It’s like a Ferrari and a Mini Cooper. I’ve just got to be on it, right? Hrgovic is a way better fighter; more experienced and whatnot, so I have to be on my A game with him. Jamie, no disrespect, I didn’t have to be on my A, or B, game. I could have just rocked up and got it done.

“TKV fight was a good one, ‘cause I was meant to wipe the floor with him, but I made it – he’s an ugly fighter. For me to go there and wipe the floor with him – ‘cause I know him and stuff, it became a bit … I was preparing for the rematch and what I was planning on doing in the rematch would have been a catastrophe. 

“I’ve knocked him out already, so to me it doesn’t really matter. If it comes, it comes. But you have to remember, I knocked him out and I didn’t even get out of second gear. It was an easy fight. As soon as I put pressure on him he was out of there.

“Once I’ve beaten Hrgovic, that rematch with Jamie may come along in five years, once he’s proved himself to these fans and promoters – once he’s beaten a name as well. As of now, I’ve done what I needed to do.”

The same was once true of Hrgovic, until he was matched with the explosive Daniel Dubois in August 2024 and was stopped in the eighth round of a competitive contest. Since then he has fought once, when in April on the same promotion as Adeleye-Tshikeva in April outpointing the alarmingly declining Joe Joyce over 10; his finest victory therefore remains that over Zhilei Zhang in 2022, and it is one that was contentious; perhaps fighting Adeleye, widely considered the significant underdog, represents a bigger risk for Hrgovic than fighting Hrgovic represents for Adeleye at a time when the landscape of the heavyweight division is being redefined.

“I’m taking everything a lot more serious,” Adeleye said.

“I’m a dedicated athlete, regardless. But just going that extra mile in the gym, pushing that little bit harder in the gym. 

“[Discipline is] what makes a lot of people, right? Built under pressure, right? I’ve gotta tighten my skin. I like that sort of pressure and I like when my back’s against the wall.

“[Hrgovic is a] good fighter. He’s had one loss, and in that one loss he still looked good, so he’s a good fighter.

“I don’t want to give too much away. But he’s a good fighter. But I know what I can do, and I believe in myself.

“He’s got good power. Good accuracy. Decent punch selection. He’s tough, durable.

“I’ve identified a few weaknesses that I think I can exploit, but even his strengths as well – that’s where a lot of fighters go wrong. They identify fighters’ weaknesses. You don’t need to look at their weaknesses. I can match him for his strengths.

“It gives me a lot of confidence [that Booth thinks I’m ready]. No one’s going to know you better than your coach. He’s obviously up for these sorts of fights – it shows a lot. 

“This is what we live for, man. This is what we’re doing.”

Booth sees in Adeleye’s athleticism shades of the once-great Haye, and to the extent that on that same Friday afternoon he was preparing to show his heavyweight footage of Haye at his peak. Adeleye, well before working with Booth, had admired Haye’s career from afar. If the Adeleye of 2025 remains an enigma – and he still must prove he has anything like Haye’s potential – then it is at least possible to envisage Haye’s counter-punching punishing Hrgovic’s aggression, regardless of Adeleye both appreciating the comparison from his trainer and playing it down.

“David Haye was in that era of, between the ‘90s to now, that transition area,” he said. “He was a big household name in the UK, went up from cruiserweight to heavyweight; David Haye was one of them heavyweights that had cruiserweight speed, heavyweight power and what not. I look at David Haye now; I sparred David Haye growing up as well. I also look at David Haye and think, ‘They done a good job'.

“We’ve got the same sort of physicalities, the same sort of style as well. It’s different things, I suppose. Different things every day. I suppose [Booth] can’t really show me too much – it’s hard to get a car and make it into something else, right? Whatever that car’s manufactured to be, that car’s manufactured to be. What I am is what I am. He can’t really … he knows what he’s working with. He just does things to add to my game.

“My career would have been different [if I’d worked with Booth from the start]. Very different. But everything happens for a reason. I have no idea [where I’d be] but I don’t think about that. I am who I am, and I’m glad how my career’s gone so far.

“Very,” he then responds, with the same warm smile, when asked if he’s excited about Saturday.

“Chillin’, man. Ready to rock and roll.”

Declan Warrington has been writing about boxing for the British and Irish national newspapers since 2010. He is also a long-term contributor to Boxing News, Boxing News Presents and Talksport, and formerly the boxing correspondent for the Press Association, a pundit for BoxNation and a regular contributor to Boxing Monthly, Sport and The Ring, among other publications. In 2023, he conducted the interviews and wrote the script for the audio documentary “Froch-Groves: The Definitive Story”; he is also a member of the BWAA.