Jared Anderson wants a fight before the year ends and has named Dave Allen and David Adeleye as possible opponents. He called them “stepping stones.” Allen makes sense after roughly 19 months out of the ring. Adeleye is a strange man to describe as a warm-up.
Anderson said he feels fully recovered from the biceps injury that canceled his May fight with Solomon Dacres. With Dacres now booked to face Bakhodir Jalolov, Anderson is looking for another opponent.
“I would like to fight someone like David Adeleye or Dave Allen. I’m ready to fight anyone that is going to be a stepping stone for me to get to the next big one,” said Anderson to The Ring.
Allen would give Anderson a chance to get rounds, use his jab, and learn how much he trusts the arm under fight conditions. Anderson has fought only once since Martin Bakole stopped him in August 2024, beating Marios Kollias on points in February 2025. A careful return after that much inactivity is sensible.
Adeleye is the fight that tests Anderson’s judgment. Bakole hurt him, pressed him to the ropes and drew him into exchanges when he needed to stay composed. Anderson’s jab became less useful as he tried to punch his way out. The question is how he reacts the next time a heavyweight lands hard and keeps coming.
Adeleye has the power to make him answer it. Anderson can leave his head high when he pulls away after punching, giving Adeleye a chance to time him with a right hand. If Anderson hesitates to use the jab because he lacks faith in the injured arm, that opening becomes easier to find. None of this means Adeleye beats him, but it makes “stepping stone” sound awfully casual.
There is a business problem, too. Anderson is co-promoted by Queensberry and Top Rank, while Adeleye recently signed with Matchroom. Anderson naming him is a long way from those companies agreeing to put their heavyweights together, especially for his first fight back.
Allen offers a reasonable place to restart. Adeleye offers a chance to prove Anderson can still handle a puncher. After the Bakole fight, those are two very different tests.
In the last two years, Anderson has treated boxing strictly like a nine-to-five punch clock, and that detachment makes every opponent a legitimate hazard. He has repeated for years that he plans to leave boxing at twenty-seven with his bank account intact. When a heavyweight looks at the ring as a nuisance rather than a calling, extended layoffs and sluggish performances follow naturally.
The warning signs did not start with Martin Bakole. Ryad Merhy stayed behind a high guard for ten rounds, and Anderson lacked the offensive imagination to open him up, turning the bout into a glorified sparring session. Bakole then exposed the complete absence of defensive fundamentals when heat comes back his way. Even in his points win over Marios Kollias, Anderson looked lackluster from the start, took clean punches early, and showed zero hunger to put on a show. Winning a dull decision over a limited opponent did nothing to erase the technical or mental cracks.
Underestimating Allen and Adeleye under these circumstances is reckless. Allen is rugged, durable, and fully accustomed to spoiling prospects who expect an easy night. If Anderson shows up out of shape or lacks snap in his punches, Allen will drag him into a messy dogfight where Anderson’s questionable gas tank and leaky guard get tested over ten hard rounds. Adeleye is an even steeper gamble. Adeleye sits on his punches, looks for counters, and carries genuine power.
Anderson’s habit of standing straight up with his hands down when pulling out of exchanges gives an opportunistic puncher like Adeleye the exact target required for an upset.
A fighter counting the days to retirement while sitting on Riyadh Season paydays cannot afford to treat active, ambitious British heavyweights as walkovers. If Anderson enters the ring purely for the paycheck without genuine fire, either man is capable of turning his intended stepping stone into another roadblock.