Tallaght featherweight Bayo Alabi is not short on confidence — and after just seven professional fights, he has every reason to be. The hot prospect has wasted little time making his mark since turning professional in 2025 under the guidance of Jay Byrne’s JB Promotions.
Now 7-0, Alabi has already travelled abroad, defeated an unbeaten home fighter for a title and established himself as one of the more exciting young names on the Irish professional scene.
His break out victory came in Glasgow in April, where he travelled into enemy territory and outpointed highly regarded Scottish prospect Marcus Sutherland over eight rounds to claim the vacant Celtic featherweight title.
Sutherland arrived with a perfect 10-0 record and was regarded as one of the UK’s emerging prospects. Alabi then followed that up with victory against Connor Kerr, a former Irish title challenger, in September.
Alabi produced another composed eight-round performance to secure a clear points victory. For a fighter who only made his professional debut in 2025, the speed of his progression is striking.
For Alabi himself, though, there is little surprise.
“I’m an egomaniac, as bad as that sounds,” he admitted.
“But I am an egomaniac, and I have high expectations of myself, and I have big dreams and big goals, and the only way you’re gonna get to that is by putting in the work I put in.
“And obviously on top of that, I think I’ve got natural talent”
That confidence has been a constant throughout Alabi’s rapid rise.
Born and raised in Dublin to Nigerian parents, who emigrated to Ireland in the 1990s, Alabi initially had little intention of making boxing his life.
Football was his first love — and, by his own admission, probably remains that way.
“I actually loved football, and I still love football more than I love boxing,” he says.
“I love watching football. And I love playing it.”
Boxing eventually entered the picture through his younger brother, who started before him. Alabi joined a gym at around 15 and quickly discovered that he had an aptitude for the sport.
He won a Dublin title, progressed to national level and eventually began competing in the elites. The foundations for his professional career were being laid.
“I was improving every day. I was going to the gym in the mornings, and I just kept getting better and better as the years went on.”
Growing up in Tallaght also played its part.
“It was just always a place where you always needed to know how to protect yourself and all that type of stuff.”
Under the guidance of promoter Jay Byrne, Alabi is beginning to turn that amateur grounding into an increasingly ambitious professional career.
And he believes the timing is particularly good for Irish boxing.
Byrne’s regular shows have provided opportunities for fighters across the domestic scene, while Michael Conlan’s emergence as a promoter adds another significant player to an increasingly active Irish boxing landscape.
“Jay has put Irish boxing higher than it’s ever been,” says Alabi.
“And Conlan coming in to make his own promotional company, so it can only get bigger and better.”
Alabi does not merely want to be another fighter benefiting from that boom. He believes he can be one of the fighters driving it.
“Domestically, even though I think I am above domestic level, I think I’m one of the guys that’s making Irish boxing exciting again,” he says.
“Not again, because it’s never been this exciting.
“I’m one of the guys that’s making Irish boxing exciting. So yeah, I cant wait to see what the future holds.”
The confidence is unmistakable. So too is the ambition.
Rather than looking to spend the next couple of years collecting Irish domestic wins, Alabi already has his eyes firmly set beyond the domestic scene.
The Irish title remains an obvious target, particularly given that the Kerr fight was originally expected to have the national title at stake.
But Alabi’s ambitions extend considerably further.
“After beating Conor Kerr, I’ve been in two highly competitive fights in a row” he says, before immediately correcting that assessment.
“I wouldn’t say highly, because neither were on my level.”
That tells you plenty about where Alabi believes he sits in the featherweight hierarchy.
“They weren’t no taxi men, no journeymen,” he adds.
“So the next 12 months, I’ll be looking to pick up another title.”
The target?
“Maybe a European title, EBU, or one of the sanctioning belts.”
There is also a bigger professional objective.
“Just keep pushing on and getting on bigger shows, get onto the bigger paydays.”
It is a bold roadmap for a fighter with only seven professional contests under his belt.
But Alabi has never appeared particularly interested in thinking small.
From a teenager who initially preferred football to boxing, to a national-level amateur, to an unbeaten professional who has already travelled to Scotland and beaten a 10-0 prospect for a Celtic title, his progression has been swift.
The next stage will tell us just how far he can go. For now, though, Alabi is happy to make one thing clear.
He does not see himself as a fighter who needs years of domestic seasoning before stepping onto the bigger stage.
He believes he is ready now.
And if he continues to perform as he is, the wider boxing world will soon get to know the name, Bayo Alabi.
Leave a comment