Electrician Josh Padley Paid Life-Changing Money For Shakur Stevenson Fight

Electrician Josh Padley, who agreed to fight Shakur Stevenson in Saudi Arabia on just four days’ notice, has reportedly been able to quit his day job after earning a life-changing sum of money from his last-minute bout.

Stevenson, who is seeking help from Floyd Mayweather to save his career, was all charged up to defend his WBC lightweight title against Floyd Schofield Jr. on the undercard of Riyadh Season’s highly-anticipated The Last Crescendo event.

Drafted in as a last-minute replacement for Schofield Jr., who pulled out on Saturday following reports of leaked messages in which he accused unnamed people of poisoning his son, according toThe Sun, Padley became an overnight sensation.

Alas, Padley stepped in after receiving a phone call about going toe-to-toe with pound-for-pound star Stevenson on the weekend and lasted until the ninth round of the match before succumbing to a litany of merciless body shots.

Prior to that, Padley’s record was clean. He last fought Mark Chamberlain, in September 2024, at Wembley and had not registered a defeat since making his debut against Jamie Quinn six years ago in April 2019.

But now, as he said in an interview with Sky Sports News, the aspiring, Doncaster-born boxer is able to pack up his tools and become laser-focused on the sport that he loves after reportedly receiving £500,000 in prize money. He said:

The entire boxing world is now blissfully aware of Padley’s story – and his loss to Stevenson, one of the best boxers in the world right now, is just the start of something special. Speaking on his defeat on the Middle East-based stage, in front of millions of fans, he said:

“I would have loved to have got the win and there would have been some back story to it, but didn’t get it,” he said before adding: “I tried my hardest, no regrets, I gave it everything I could but the body wasn’t conditioned to take them shots.”

Irrespective of his purse, it appears that his willingness to show up and fight at such short notice means that the British lightweight, whose nickname is ‘Paddy’, has taken home much more than a bloated bank balance.