Adam Booth sees ‘freakish’ similarities between David Adeleye and David Haye

Adam Booth sees shades of David Haye in his new fighter David Adeleye. 

The 28-year-old Adeleye, who on Saturday fights for the first time since losing his only fight when being stopped by Fabio Wardley in October 2023, also enters his first contest under Booth when he challenges the English heavyweight champion Solomon Dacres.

That Booth also recently started working with Felix Cash and Isaac Chamberlain is a reflection of the reality that since Ryan Burnett’s retirement he has struggled to guide a fighter to the heights he once relished with Haye. 

Josh Kelly was denied a potentially career-transforming occasion when injury forced Liam Smith to pull out of their fight scheduled for September, but on the undercard of Brad Pauls-Denzel Bentley at Wembley Arena, Booth’s year will end on the positive note he believed it was previously on course for if Adeleye can win.

Adeleye spoke of his admiration for Booth and Haye shortly after they first started working together, and when asked about his comments the trainer told BoxingScene: “It was interesting. We were working with different styles. Hands up; hands down; what the mindset is with this style; what the mindset is with that style. At one point I had him with a sharpshooting, low-left-hand style, looking to do something with the right hand. 

“This little movement – posture – and it was identical, I had to stop because it looked identical to David Haye. At the time he had his hair out as well, and it was a little bit freakish the way he did it. ‘Ah, okay – right – that’s a mimic.’ When I saw that, that was when I realised he used to watch him. 

“He certainly has a lot of athletic ability. I’m trying to work on his understanding of what to do, and how to do it, and that goes from everything in training to how to go about spars and fights. I like him. I can see he’s got potential. I can see he’s fearless. There’s a good attitude in him. So we’ll see. It’s certainly a big job to get him to maximize his potential, but it’s one that’s obviously piqued my interest, because I’m doing it. 

“I’m his coach, but he’s got a personality – a character and a spirit that’s easy to like. You don’t really hear anyone saying anything bad about him. Everyone seems to love David – and he is like that – and that’s all well and good, but ultimately, my priority is doing the job, and sometimes I have to be a bit harsh on him. I’m not going to praise something if it’s not to the standard I think it should be, and he’s felt that.

“I’m not interested in working with someone that I don’t gel with, and I’m not interested in working with fighters that I don’t believe in as people. I can’t just work with anyone.”

Booth’s success with Haye contributed to him later being recruited to work with, among others, Cuba’s Mike Perez, Richard Towers and Joe Joyce. Each association ultimately came to little, and he said of again training a heavyweight: “It hurts. It just hurts more on the wrists and stuff. But other than that, I recognize the ingredients, and I recognize the differences between heavyweights and other weights.

“It’s not about ability, it’s about execution, and not just execution in fights, but the execution and the repetition that you do through your progression. I can see where it could go. I’m only interested in world-level fighters – I’m not interested in English titles or British titles, and I do see that he has the ingredients. Absolutely, categorically, he’s got the ingredients to take himself up there. You’ve got to put them in in a certain order – if you just toss them in in one it doesn’t come out the same.”