David Adeleye

Adeleye was born on 16 November 1996 in London, England, Adeleye is the son of Nigerian-French parents who hailed from Ikole in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Adeleye holds both Nigerian and French citizenship from his parents.^[3][4] Adeleye's parents never wished for him to go into professional boxing until he had at least finished higher-education.^[3][5] When Adeleye was growing up, he admired Lennox Lewis, Muhammad Ali and Roy Jones Jr.^[6]

Adeleye began boxing at the Dale Youth Club, at the age of 14, under the tutelage of Gary McGuiness.^[7] He became Junior ABA champion in 2013, and winning the Senior ABA Novices in 2017 before winning the Senior ABA title in 2018.^[8][9] He later represented England in an international against Denmark in 2018 and secured gold at the British Universities and Colleges Sport Boxing Championships.^[10]

On 12 July 2019, it was confirmed that Adeleye had turned professional under Frank Warren's Queensberry Promotions banner.^[11] Adeleye made his professional debut on 21 December 2019, on the undercard of Daniel Dubois against Kyotaro Fujimoto for the vacant WBC Silver heavyweight title at the Copper Box Arena in London.^[12] The referee, Mark Bates, called a halt to proceedings as Adeleye defeated Lithunaian fighter Dmitrij Kalinovskij via technical knockout (TKO) in the first round.^[13] On 10 July 2020, Adeleye returned with a second-round knockout over Matt Gordon at the BT Sport Studio in London.^[14][15] Adeleye's third fight was a return to the BT Sport Studio on 29 August against Phil Williams, whom Adeleye stopped in the third round, achieving his third knockout victory in a row.^[16]

Adeleye fought Fabio Wardley on the undercard of Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia on 28 October 2023, for the vacant Commonwealth heavyweight strap, Wardley’s British championship, and Adeleye’s WBO European heavyweight belt. He lost the fight via TKO in the seventh round which resulted in him losing his undefeated record. Adeleye was knocked down in the seventh round from a left hook, which left him flat on his back, before managing to get back up on nine seconds of the 10 count.^[17] Wardley then unleashed a barrage of punches with nothing coming back from Adeleye, resulting in the referee calling a stop to the fight, thereby declaring Wardley the winner by technical knock-out.^[18] Adeleye protested the stoppage and shoved the referee John Latham.^[19][20]

After more than a year away from competitive action, Adeleye returned to the ring on 7 December 2024, stopping English heavyweight champion Solomon Dacres in the first round of their fight at Wembley Arena in London.^[21][22]

Adeleye faced Jeamie Tshikeva for the vacant British heavyweight title at the Co-Op Live Arena in Manchester on 5 April 2025.^[23][24] He won by stoppage in the sixth round.^[25][26]

Without making any defenses, Adeleye vacated the British title in July 2025.^[27]

On 16 August 2025, he lost to Filip Hrgović by unanimous decision in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on the undercard of the Moses Itauma vs Dillian Whyte fight.^[28][29]

Adeleye, who had combined amateur boxing with his studies, graduated in 2018 from the University of Wolverhampton with a degree in business management, in which his dissertation was on the business aspect of boxing.^[30]