The heavyweight, who turned 20 in February, has been tipped for superstardom in the professionals given he received the World Youth Championships in 2024 and likewise claimed a pair of European golds as an beginner.
Olaniyan’s journey in the paid ranks begins on Saturday evening after he determined to eschew the probability of qualification for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics in favour of knowledgeable take care of Frank Warren and Queensberry Promotions.
His first outing of that settlement will happen at Dublin’s 3Arena, solely a brief bus experience away from the south west suburb of the metropolis the place all of it started for him and his boxing brother Josh.
Olaniyan was solely seven when he adopted Josh, himself a boxer of a lot promise, into the fitness center. Their mom, fed up of their antics, determined the boxing fitness center can be the greatest place for them to channel their youthful exuberance.
It was Josh who competed first and it was solely then that their father instructed the boys that the candy science ran of their blood given he had boxed in the Nigerian military. Not solely that, however he had already taken them out on runs and held pads for them in the hope that someday they too would lace them up.
“We would go with him on his training jogs and teach us how to hit the pads but we just thought it was a bit of fun. We didn’t take it seriously but he actually had a plan and that was to teach us how to box. It’s mad how it all worked out, he knew what he was doing.”
Even so, Olaniyan didn’t actually take it critically till he was handed a very memorable beating in sparring when he was 13 years previous. By that time, he was 6ft 2in and over 260 kilos and determined it was time to lock in as the punches rained down on him from the older boy.
“I remember being there just holding my hands up,” he says. “I just thought ‘I’ve had enough of this, I’m taking it serious’. I won two nationals and a European gold that year and haven’t looked back since.”
He has, nevertheless, grow to be aware of what can occur once you take your eye off the ball, if solely momentarily. Given his success as an beginner and therfore his potential worth as a industrial commodity, the secret was properly and actually out amongst the world’s largest promoters.
That gold at the World Youths in November 2024 marked him out as a possible star and all eyes have been on him when he boxed as a senior in the Irish elites the following summer season. But he was introduced again right down to earth with a bump as he was stopped in the third spherical of the ultimate by Belfast’s Martin McDonagh.
“No disrespect to my opponent because he beat me fair and square that day,” Olaniyan says. “But it was hard to knuckle down in training and do what I needed to do because lads were flying me first class everywhere, you know what I mean?
“I was going to America, I was going to Portugal, I was here, there and everywhere. And as an 18, 19-year-old kid that makes it hard to focus. But I got beaten and it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.
“I was able to learn from it and come back. It really shaped me and my mindset now going forward.”
But Olaniyan, who might be boxing out of Liverpool’s famed Everton Red Triangle fitness center, mentioned: “I don’t think it’s about following any blueprint or trying to copy what anyone else has done. I’m Adam Olaniyan and my road plan is different. My destiny is different and I’m just going to do what I need to do.
“I’m not looking at, or following anybody else. I’ll just be doing what I know what to do.”
The Gerbasi Corner honors longtime Ring Magazine and boxing contributor Tom Gerbasi, who handed away all of the sudden on Sept. 15, 2025. A 2024 Nat Fleischer Award winner for excellence in boxing journalism, Gerbasi took specific pleasure in telling the tales of up-and-coming and unheralded prospects in the sport.
