Eddie Hearn 'proud' of Josh Padley after Matchroom debut victory

Just months after quitting his day job as an electrician, Josh Padley made his Matchroom debut at the Park Community Arena in Sheffield, defeating Marko Cvetanovic via TKO in round five.

Padley arguably possesses one of the greatest stories to come out of British boxing in recent years, able to quit his job as an electrician to pursue his professional boxing career when handed the chance to fight Shakur Stevenson in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Prior to his first ever professional defeat against Stevenson, he was drafted in to fight the highly respected Mark Chamberlain on the ‘Anthony Joshua v Daniel Dubois’ card. While he was expected to comfortably lose the fight with Chamberlain well on his way to a shot at the world title, Padley emerged victorious via unanimous decision, handing his opponent his first career defeat in the process.

He has recently signed with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing on a multi-fight promotional deal after impressing against Stevenson and Chamberlain.

Defeating Marko Cvetanovic in his first fight since signing with Matchroom, Hearn praised Padley and spoke on what he thought was next for the 29-year-old.

When talking to the Boxed IN Podcast, Hearn said: “I think the first thing is to decide if he’s going to stay at 135 or move down to 130. He’s definitely capable of making 130 and we’ve got Reece Bellotti there with the British and Commonwealth titles – that’s a good fight.

It’s a big win for Josh tonight and I’m proud of him.

“He went out and jumped at the chance to fight Shakur Stevenson, made a lot of money and now we’re back down, not even in reality because I think his feet are still off the floor, but he has won his first title tonight and has a big future ahead.”

While Padley too was proud with his own performance, he suggested on The Stomping Ground that: “It’s what I needed to do. I needed to go out there and prove a point. Like I said before I needed to prove that Matchroom made the right decision in signing me and that I am a good fighter.”

• Who is Josh Padley? Part-time electrician set for world title fight in Riyadh

Ellis Statham

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