Irish heavyweight prospect Adam Olaniyan is only two fights into his pro career, but already plenty are taking note of the heavy handed 20-year-old.<\/p>\n
Managed by Brian Peters and promoted by Queensberry, Olaniyan bids to go to 3-0 (3 KOs) on Saturday in Dublin before setting his sights on the September 5 Croke Park bill.<\/p>\n
The 6ft 6ins Dubliner made short work of veteran journeyman Viktar Chvarkou in June and reckons the Watford-based Kazakh might have been on the wrong end of some of the best punches he has thrown.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Olaniyan, who rates his jab has his best shot, said the right hand that brought about Chvarkou\u2019s demise was the best he has landed to date.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve obviously had big ones in sparring, but, you know, sparring is different,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’d say in a fight that’s been recorded, that’s been live-streamed, I’d say that one [the right hand is the best]. There\u2019s going to be a sparring story for everybody, but sparring doesn\u2019t even compare to a fight, they\u2019re two different things, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
Needless to say, he was satisfied with how he boxed in Southampton to dismiss Chvarkou but it wasn\u2019t long before his attention turned to the next date. And after August 1, there\u2019s September 5.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Is he taking some time to enjoy the journey?<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, I\u2019m a very appreciative person and I just like to look back on things and think about how far I\u2019ve come and where I can be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, yeah, it\u2019s probably a combination of the two. I look back at it sometimes but then I\u2019m like, \u2018Well, I have this fight August 1st and then September 5th, so don\u2019t want to look back at it too much because I\u2019ll get caught up with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Croke Park, in particular is what dreams are made of, and the significance of his spot on the bill is not lost on the likable Olaniyan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, Muhammad Ali being the last heavyweight to fight there and then I\u2019m going to be the next heavyweight after Muhammad Ali to fight there, he\u2019s someone I’ve idolised, someone I\u2019ve watched growing up for my name to be beside his, it\u2019s a pinch me moment. I still haven\u2019t really comprehended it, still don\u2019t even know what to say. It leaves me speechless every time I think about it but, yeah, I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Olaniyan has had little time to demonstrate his skills so far, he has shown his strength. That is an attribute he has had as long as he can remember.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I’ve always been really heavy-handed, even as a kid, everything I touched, every toy I ever played with, I broke. My mum says it to me to this day, she’s like, \u2018I don’t even know how strong I am.\u2019 It was actually a funny story, we were wrestling on the schoolyard and there was this kid and I suplexed him and just picked him up and smashed him off the ground. We were like seven or eight and the teacher was like, \u2018How did you even do that? You’re eight years old.\u2019 So I\u2019ve always been pretty naturally strong, and obviously my dad, he’s a big fella. He used to box and I actually remember the first time I sparred, that\u2019s what they said to me. \u2018You\u2019re punching really hard, so just try to work on that.\u2019 But obviously it’s a strength so we try to work on the weaknesses, bring everything up to a level, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, at 20, it\u2019s frightening how strong he could become. He\u2019s not unlike Tyson Fury at that age; big, gifted and strong.<\/p>\n
But Fury always talked about aesthetically pleasing heavyweights who were musclebound.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Olaniyan doesn\u2019t care what anyone looks like. Winning and experience are the two things he cares about most.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a bodybuilder, the most important thing for me is performance, it’s getting the rounds, being strong, being fit, being sharp, being agile, though, I feel I haven\u2019t really fully, finished growing yet, so I reckon I probably will develop an even more chiselled physique than I already do have. I’ll definitely fill into my frame, get a bit bigger, get a bit stronger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is what it is. If you condition your body to do a certain thing, it will do it. If you condition your body to lift weights, you\u2019ll look pretty good in the gym, but if you\u2019ve been, like myself, training boxing, since you\u2019re seven, you’re going to know how to punch and land effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that is clearly something Olaniyan does very well because, in the fight before Olaniyan, Chvarkou went six rounds with Matchroom\u2019s young heavyweight prospect, Leo Atang. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish heavyweight prospect Adam Olaniyan is only two fights into his pro career, but already plenty are taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[210442,703,711,710,49,48,1605,82],"class_list":["post-832761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-adam-olaniyan","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxingscene","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-muhammad-ali","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}