Kalle Sauerland has spent years rebuilding Josh Kelly’s confidence and standing in the sport and then cajoled and campaigned to secure him the right opportunity – and the ideal opponent – to belatedly prove he is a world-level talent.
The best-laid plans regularly go to waste in boxing, and Liam Smith’s late withdrawal from his and Kelly’s proposed middleweight fight at Wembley Stadium on Saturday meant that years of plotting and manoeuvring devolved into a mad scramble.
Ordinarily, Kelly, 15-1-1 (8 KOs), would have been withdrawn from the promotion or matched with an opponent capable of standing on a set of scales and walking to the ring and little else, but Riyadh Season shows are anything but ordinary.
There were plenty of names willing to replace Smith, but the magnitude of Saturday’s show at Wembley required that they were also able.
Enter Ishmael Davis, 13-0 (6 KOs).
“Josh says he’s a similar style of fighter,” Sauerland said. “I’ll be totally honest, I still don’t know that much about Ishmael Davis, apart from the fact that he’s a hot prospect with a very good record
“Josh says he’s stylistically quite similar to Liam but, mentally, he’s coming in that ring with a totally different MO. He was supposed to be boxing in a couple of weeks’ time. He’ll be fit. He’ll know exactly why he dropped out of the other fight to take this fight. It wasn’t like he was sitting around waiting for a payday; he was fighting in a couple of weeks’ time. He will be very confident but it’s our time on Saturday night.”
Davis is a talented, improving fighter who recently matched Kelly’s best career victory by outpointing Troy Williamson, and certainly he isn’t overawed at the prospect of taking on the 30 year-old.
In the past this particular set of circumstances may have triggered all kinds of worries and fears in Kelly but Sauerland insists that these days he is a much more relaxed figure and believes that the way he dealt with the disappointment of the Smith fight falling out proves his increased level of self-belief. Sauerland expects the confident Kelly to revel under the weight of expectation.
“I’ve seen quite a few locker rooms over the years,” he said. “You’ve gotta see that on Saturday night, what goes on in this locker room. It’s a very relaxed vibe. I went in there once and was very embarrassed because they asked me to dance.
“One thing I definitely can’t do is dance. Especially when I’m nervous, two minutes before walking. It was actually before the Troy Williamson fight so a pretty big fight for him.
“We say, ‘Ok, just find an opponent’, but he had to agree to the opponent – he had to agree to a certain level of opponent too – so I think that tells me a lot. Ultimately the stage is set for Saturday night and it’s a big stage. If there are question marks, they’ll be answered Saturday.
“I do think that a lot of the question marks for me were answered when he beat Troy Williamson. It was a big night and I think Saturday night is different challenges but he’s in a great space.”
John Evans has contributed to a number of well-known publications and websites for over a decade. You can follow John on X @John_Evans79
