Unbeaten Doncaster fighter Josh Padley speaks with Harvey Hudson ahead of his fight with Mark Chamberlain. The bout holds significance as it opens the bill for Riyadh Season’s first event held on British soil.
JOSH Padley sees his fight with Mark Chamberlain as the opportunity of a lifetime, having come up from the small hall circuit with no major promotional backing.
“This is what you almost dream of and this is obviously every boxer’s end goal, to get to this stage,” Padley explains as he reflects on the jump from fighting at Elland Road’s banquet hall to Wembley Stadium.
“It makes it worth all of the hard work that you’ve put in over the years. When you get shows like this, this is what you work for so you’ve got to go for them.
“Coming up on the small hall shows you don’t always get given the choice of certain journeymen that have the better records. You’re obviously tied in with your ticket sales, so you can’t always afford the journeymen with the 50-50 records or the journeymen with the winning records to get your rank up there.
“You have to sort of box with what you can afford on your tickets, so it’s a bit of a different route to take as far as someone like Mark’s opponents. He probably could have afforded the better journeymen than myself.”
Padley is very much aware of the script and task at hand, as his opponent is backed by the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, Turki Alalshikh.
Chamberlain has been given back-to-back opportunities on Riyadh Season cards and Turki Alalshikh has vocalised that he is one of his favourite fighters to watch.
However, this does not seem to faze Padley and he feels his job is to rip up the script.
“I mean it’s there for the taking,” he adds. “Obviously if somebody favours somebody and you can go in there and upset it, it looks even better on my behalf. So that’s exactly what I’m going in there to do.”
As a heavy 8/1 underdog with some bookies, Padley recognises what he believes to be the reasoning behind this.
“The bookies are gonna go with the guy they have seen the most of,” says the Doncaster lightweight.
“Obviously, Mark’s been on these big shows before and there’s a lot of content out on Mark and he’s got a lot of stoppages. They are going to go with what information is in front of them. A couple of my mates have had a couple of bets on so we’ll find out on fight night if the bookies have done them right or not.”
Boxing News asks Padley about the speed in which the fight was offered and accepted.
“I was initially offered it [the fight] the day before the press conference,” he answers.
“There was no pre-build-up or anything like that. There was no inkling that we might be getting the offer. It was a very last-minute offer and a last-minute decision. I had no time to dwell on it, with obviously the opportunity being the opportunity. It didn’t really need much convincing.”
Taking fights at short notice is not unknown territory for Padley. Late last year, he boxed twice within the space of eight days, taking the latter fight on late notice.
“The week before we boxed at Elland Road, we got the phone call saying do you want to come over to Malta and box a sort of unheard-of kid,” he explains.
“We didn’t really know much about him, he was undefeated at the time but I fancied the opportunity and it made sense to keep busy. I knew the Elland Road opposition wasn’t up to my level as such so I thought why not. I thought I’m going to get two fights in two weeks so it was a bit of a no-brainer for me.”
Boxing News raises the recent announcement that they are increasing the crowd capacity for the Wembley card on September 21st and mentions that the event is set to break records for the largest ever boxing attendance in the UK.
“It’s great to be a part of a historic boxing event in the UK,” he adds. “When you obviously go and search what events have actually happened at Wembley, it’s a very select handful.
So my name is going to be a part of that very select handful that have had the chance to box at Wembley. That was the main turning point for me to be a part of this event and get on a show of this magnitude.”
“I’m using this fight to get that exposure that my career was missing. Like you say, I’ve come up on the small hall shows that are hard to break through. This is my breakthrough moment now. I need to go out there and put the best account of myself on the night and do what I need to do.”
Boxing News mentions sharing the event with musical icon Liam Gallagher and the trending rumours that his brother Noel could be present during the performance.
“There’s been rumours on Twitter and stuff hasn’t there,” laughs Padley. “It would be nice, wouldn’t it. Now they’ve made up and I know there’s photos with them back in the day with the likes of Ricky Hatton and them both in the ring and stuff like that. It would fit the event quite well.
“The Riyadh season cards are not just boxing shows. It’s an actual event with the performances and all the biggest names and obviously all the biggest stars. They are turning it into a full-on special occasion every time.”
When asked about the quality over quantity nature of the bill, with six competitive fights top to bottom, Padley reveals a noteworthy update on his bout.
“I think I’m the first one on the card,” he explains. “It was originally meant to be for the WBC silver title. I might be giving you a little bit of an exclusive here. Apparently the fight’s now changed and I’ve had to move up weights, which wasn’t the most ideal thing but obviously I don’t want to pass on an opportunity like this because they don’t come around too often. So, the fight will now be scheduled at super-lightweight.
“I’m not too bothered about it. I need to go in there and perform to the best of my ability and get on with the task at hand and that’s beating Mark Chamberlain. I will do whatever it takes. I obviously would have liked it to be for the belt, but it’s not my decision.”