While big Irish heavyweight Adam Olaniyan is focused on his own path, that doesn’t mean he can’t pay tribute to those who went before him.
Olaniyan fights in Dublin tonight.
The Queensberry-promoted, Brian Peters-managed youngster is due to box against tonight and again on September 5 at Croke Park, when he is fights on the undercard of Katie Taylor’s farewell fight against Flora Pili.
The heavy-handed Olaniyan is only 20 and 2-0 (2 KOs) but tonight boxes Argentine Jonathan Claudio Sauco, who is 5-2 (1 KO) before he sets his sights on staying busy when he becomes the first heavyweight to box at Croke Park since Muhammad Ali in 1972.
It is, of course, set up to be a celebration of the brilliant Taylor.
“She’s an icon,” Olaniyan said. “I wouldn’t say an icon, I’d say she is the icon. She’s like the sportsperson of Ireland, and to be sharing a card with her, that’s also a pinch-me moment because I’ve grown up watching her. I’ve watched Katie fight in the Olympics twice, I’ve watched her in the World Championships. I’ve seen her at the stadium loads of times when she was still an amateur, just mad stuff like that, and then to now be sharing a card with her, to be fighting on the same card, to be managed by the same manager [Brian Peters], it’s a proper full circle moment, really.”