IRELAND is more renowned for producing pocket rockets rather than big bruisers, but Adam Olaniyan is already putting the country on the super-heavyweight map – with major plans in place for the future.
The 6′6″ Tallaght teenager has been crowned European and World youth champion inside the past 12 months.
He also helped prepare former world champion Joseph Parker for his victory over Chinese man-mountain Zhilei Zhang earlier this year, and was due to spar Tyson Fury until a nasty cut saw the Gypsy King’s unification bout with Oleksandr Usyk pushed back.
In terms of potential, and still a growing boy at 18, Olaniyan wants for nothing - with all at Jobstown Boxing Club playing a huge part in bringing him to where he stands today.
“None of my success would have been possible without them, and James Gray who has put a lot of work into me,” he says.
“I appreciate all their hard work and efforts so far. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Olaniyan will be 22 by the time the Los Angeles Olympics roll around but, heading towards his first year as a senior boxer, the talented Martin McDonagh – who came so close to reaching Paris 2024 – is the current gatekeeper at super-heavy.
If they do eventually collide on the national stage, having already sparred behind closed doors, it will be worth the entry fee alone.
However, whether it even reaches that stage remains to be seen. Olaniyan’s meteoric rise, allied to his physical gifts, have already brought him to the attention of big-time promoters.
If it seems too early, just look at Moses Itauma, England’s teenage knockout artist who opted out of a promising amateur career to sign with Frank Warren’s Queensbury Promotions, and is currently 10-0 as a pro, aged just 19.
“I’ve been offered big money to turn pro – big, big, big money,” says Olaniyan, who visited St Paul’s boxing club in Belfast at the weekend, renewing acquaintances with Ralph McKay, part of the Irish coaching team at last month’s World Youth Championships in Montenegro.
“Of course there’s a temptation – if you heard the money they’re offering me, you’d bite their hand off. It’s life-changing, and it would set my family up.
“But at the same time I want the Olympics - there’s a lot of factors that play into everything. If the high performance come knocking and I get on funding… that’s what I’m battling with now.
“Like, they’re [promoters] offering me money right now, but I want to go to the Olympics and I don’t know when I’m going to get funding off the IABA.
“The Olympics, winning gold, has always been my goal. When I started boxing, it was Muhammad Ali who I looked up to – he went to the Olympics then turned over, and I always wanted to do the same.
“They’re throwing money at me but I’m still weighing up my options. It’s a hard one.”
The pro world is one full of whispers, and word will have got around swiftly that Olaniyan coped well in elite company when sharing the ring with Parker.
The Kiwi’s coach, Ireland’s former middleweight world champion Andy Lee, is already firmly in the young Dubliner’s corner.
“Why not - why wouldn’t they be?” he laughed when asked why some of the biggest names in the game had come looking for him so early in his fight career.
“I talk to Andy a lot. He did pads with me before the Europeans, but obviously Parker hasn’t been in the ring since March so I haven’t seen him as much.
“It was very different, like, getting in there with a pro. Because I’m so used to sparring amateurs, three rounds, but when I’m in sparring the likes of Parker, it’s a fella you’ve watched on TV, fighting for a heavyweight world title – that’s literally where I want to be.
“I was just learning off him and gaining as much experience as I possibly could. Even when I went to then national U18s last year, I walked into the changing room and all the boys were like ‘Adam, were you actually sparring Joe Parker or were you just messin’?’ They couldn’t believe it.
“I’m a big believer in God, that there’s a plan for everybody, and I think this is what he wants me to do. If God wants it to happen, he’s going to make it happen.”
Part of that plan could even see him relocate north in the months ahead – which might bring him into the frame for the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
“I’m still trying to think of everything I can possibly do.
“I know the Commonwealth Games is national TV, it would build my profile, so there’s nothing ruled out at this stage. After Christmas, when all the jingle bells stuff is over with, I’ll think about those things then.”
Whatever path he chooses, Olaniyan knows family will help guide him along the way.
His father was a boxer in the Nigerian army before later moving to Ireland, while older brother Joshua - another product of the Jobstown club - was last year’s Irish elite middleweight champion, travelling out to Budva to cheer Adam to gold.
“When we were younger, my dad never told us he was a boxer, and then one day we came to him ‘we want to box’ and he told us.
“We got into gym and from there he just started working on us and helping us. Once we were in the gym, we never left.
“Joshua’s 20, I’m 18. We use each other a lot; we’re perfect for each other. I push him on, he pushes me, and it’s kind of like a sibling rivalry – there’s no bad blood or anything, we both want the best for each other.
“Hopefully we can both go far.”