STEPHEN ADENTAN SIGNS FOR QUEENSBERRY
FRANK WARREN IS delighted to announce that explosive cruiserweight prospect Stephen Adentan is to join the Queensberry Promotions ranks after turning professional.
The 6ft 6″ powerhouse is a product of the Repton Boxing Club, from where he clocked up 16 wins from 20 amateur bouts, with 12 of his wins coming via KO.
A late starter in the sport, the 29-year-old won super heavyweight gold at the ‘King of the Ring’ tournament in Sweden, while also reaching the final of the 2019 London ABA, where he suffered a defeat due to a cracked rib.
Adentan is a friend and regular training and sparring partner of Lawrence Okolie, while he has also shared sparring sessions with experienced campaigners such as Dereck Chisora and Anthony Joshua.
He is also no stranger to the world of entertainment and advertising, having appeared in the BBC drama Noughts and Crosses, as well as worldwide campaigns for Superdry, Nike and Aston Martin.
“This is a big platform and opportunity for me,” said the cruiserweight on his signing to perform for Frank Warren’s Queensberry promotions. “I am well suited to the pro ranks with my punch power and I am very explosive.
“I have seen my friends do really well – such as Lawrence Okolie and Joshua Buatsi – and move on in the ranks and everyone was always asking me when my turn was coming. I said I was just biding my time, but I am ready to really get cracking now.
“Without getting too deep I had a kind of turning point last year with what you could call slight depression when I felt derailed in terms of my plans in boxing. I got distracted and kind of fell out of love with it after having acting roles and learning to be a stuntman.
“It was all glitz and glam but it left a massive void in not being able to punch people! That is when I realised I had to get back into training and then my hunger really came back, my ferocity came back along with my spite.
“I lost my spite for a bit and didn’t have an edge. It soon came back after I started up again and I actually spoke to Anthony Joshua about it and he said the same thing happened to him before he brought it all the way back to when he was an amateur and used to watch all the stuff on Roy Jones jr, Joe Frazier and Mike Tyson. He filled his head up with that instead of all this nonsense outside of the ring, which doesn’t mean anything.”
Boxing wasn’t actually Adentan’s first calling in sport and there was a time when speed of foot counted over fast hands.
“I came to boxing late and I used to be a sprinter over 100m and 200m. I was a fashion model at the same time and I only started boxing because I couldn’t fit in clothes due to being too big! I thought this boxing thing could help me lose some muscle and then when I was hitting people I could see the change in the look in their eyes.
“That is when I thought I could be on to something and that is how it came about.”
Adentan is trained by Steve Broughton in Kings Cross and he reports preparations for his pro debut are well underway.
“I am really working on my boxing skills right now and building on the fundamentals. I’ve got a blessing in terms of the power I possess and what it does to people is a great equaliser, but we have seen with Deontay Wilder against Tyson Fury what happens when it is all you rely on.”
