Adam Booth Profile

Booth currently trains Sunderland welterweight Josh Kelly among others, but he made his name as the trainer to 'The Haymaker' David Haye.

The pair came synonymous en route to cruiserweight and heavyweight world titles.

Booth and Haye were a marriage made in heaven and a partnership that lasted 10 years.

When Haye elected to turn pro in 2002, there was only one man he wanted to train him - Booth. The pair knew each other well from Booth's old boxing gym, the Fitzroy Lodge, where he helped coach Mick Carney.

Carney gave him three youngsters to work with on a regular basis, one being a 16-year old whom Carney said was talented but lazy.

That talented, lazy kid was Haye. And Carney said Haye "got lazier as he got older".

Haye and Booth linked in and the former blasted past his first 10 opponents in the cruiserweight division. But he came unstuck against 42-year-old Carl Thompson.

Thompson was a seasoned pro and as resilient as they come and once Haye had given it his all, Thompson stepped on the gas and KO'd him in the fifth round.

Booth made some radical changes after that and in 2007 came, arguably, one of Haye's greatest victories.

He defeated the fearsome Frenchman Jean-Marc Mormeck for the WBC and WBA titles. Haye had to recover from being knocked down, but he did so and produced a seventh-round KO win over the former two-time unified world cruiserweight champion.

In 2009 Booth got Haye a shot at WBA champion Nicolai Valuev of Russia. It was billed as 'David vs Goliath' with the Russian a towering seven feet tall and 320lbs.

Valuev remains the tallest and heaviest world champion, but Haye ran rings around him that night in Nuremberg.

He put in a masterful performance to avoid the mighty Russian giant and almost knocked him down in the 11th round. He later revealed he had broken his hand in the fight, which he won on two judges' scorecards to take the WBA heavyweight crown.

In 2011 Haye fell short in his attempt to unify the heavyweight division as he was beaten on points by Wladimir Klitschko in front of 45,000 fans in Hamburg.

An estimated 10,000 Brits had followed Haye, but he was comprehensively beaten on points. The three judges scored the fight 117-109, 118-108 and 116-110, all in Klitschko's favour.

Haye could not deal with the Ukranian's piston-like jab, but afterwards he claimed he had broken a toe in his right foot.

Haye was also involved in one of boxing's most infamous brawls.

After Dereck Chisora lost to Vitali Klitschko in February 2012, Haye got himself in an ugly melee with Chisora and his entourage.

Haye was working as a commentator but got involved in a war of words at the post-fight press conference which turned violent.

Chisora started the confrontation after leaving his seat to confront Haye at the rear of the press room. But Haye landed the first blow with a fist clutching a glass bottle.

Haye then fought with Chisora's trainer and attempted to hit him on the head with a camera tripod as the pair battled in the midst of the press and watching TV crews.

Haye and Booth were together for just one fight after that - against Chisora in July 2012. Haye won via a fifth-round knockout to win the WBA Intercontinental and WBO heavyweight International championships in what was a real grudge match.

The pair grew apart after that and their split was acrimonious.

Booth currently has a variety of elite fighters in his stable. The likes of Josh Kelly, Michael Conlan, Liam Williams, Ryan Burnett, Harlem Eubank Shannon Courtenay and Ellie Scotney are all under his tutelage.

Booth also used to be paired with Chris Eubank Jnr but the pair split in 2019 over a reported sparring row. While he has also had spells with heavyweight Joe Joyce and the former WBO middleweight and super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders.

But Booth more famously trained Haye, Andy Lee and George Groves.

Booth was with Groves from his first professional fight as the Hammersmith super middleweight established himself in the sport,

The pair were together for five years, but parted ways in the lead-up to his momentous bout with Carl Froch in November 2013. The former British and Commonwealth champion Groves was 19-0 (15) when he left Booth.

One of Booth's greatest achievements was helping Lee to the WBO middleweight title in December 2014.

Booth was the mastermind as Lee clinched the vacant WBO world title with a sixth-round stoppage victory against Russian Matt Korobov in Las Vegas.

"No one gave him a prayer. Everyone was just being polite to us saying, 'Good luck, you've got a chance, you can do this.' It felt like they were patronising," said Booth in the aftermath.

Adam began his passion for boxing, aged 11. He boxed as an amateur at Winston Churchill ABC, Croydon ABC and the Lynn ABC and turned professional and had over 40 contests.

However, he was injured before his first pro bout, badly breaking his leg playing football. His injury meant his boxing career was over and he went to study anatomy and physiology as well as injury rehabilitation. He went on to lecture in the subject for five years, while he also ran a leading sports clinic.