On Tuesday, Doncaster electrician Josh Padley was doing his day job. He was clambering beneath a roof installing a solar panel. He did not know that, later that day, he would receive a call that would change his life.
Meanwhile in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Floyd Schofield was falling ill. The young Texan was due to challenge elite world champion Shakur Stevenson for the WBC lightweight title on Saturday's Sky Sports Box Office event.
He did not appear for the Grand Arrivals event on Tuesday evening in Riyadh and it later emerged that he had been admitted to hospital.
The British Boxing Board of Control, which administers this boxing event in Saudi Arabia, would not allow him to fight.
American star Stevenson was left without an opponent for his fight on a bill, topped by the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol and Daniel Dubois-Joseph Parker world title fights, which has been viewed as the greatest boxing card of all-time.
That prompted a sequence of late-night negotiations and Padley, who had upset the previously unbeaten Mark Chamberlain on the Riyadh Season bill at Wembley Stadium last year, came into the frame.
That win had caught the eye and Eddie Hearn, Stevenson's promoter, began negotiations with Padley's manager late at night UK time and in the early hours of the morning in Riyadh.
"Obviously it's very expensive. But it should be," Hearn told Sky Sports.
An agreement though was rapidly reached.
But then the mechanics of getting Padley over for the new fight had to be navigated.
Padley made sense because he had a world ranking with the WBC and that title could still be on the line for their fight. However, he had to make the weight.
The board needed him to do a check weigh in to make sure he would be healthy to fight.
Padley did that with a board doctor in Leeds first thing Wednesday morning. "He was on weight. All his medicals were done, he just needed an eye test. He want to the eye specialist, got his eye test, all fine and he got on a plane at 4.15pm," Hearn explained.
Padley made it to the fight hotel in Riyadh by 6am on Thursday morning.
"I stay in the gym all year round, I stay ready and here we are," Padley told Sky Sports. "I do live the life of a professional athlete, hence why I'm here, making the weight and ready to fight.
"I jumped at the opportunity, as you can imagine, because they don't come round that often. So I'm excited for it.
"I'm excited to see where I am in comparison to someone like Shakur Stevenson. People will probably say I don't belong in there with him and obviously I'm going to go prove a point that I do."
"Big win, short notice, flying over," he continued. "Here I am."
Padley trained on Thursday and if he makes weight on Friday, as he is on course to do, he will get the most unlikely of world title fights against one of the best fighters in the sport on Saturday.
"I'm still on the card and the show must go on," Stevenson said.
"I'm in shape, they could have said anybody, they could have said [Vasiliy] Lomachenko and I would have said, 'let's fight'.
"Me at the best can beat anybody at their best. I'm the best in boxing and I'll show it Saturday."
Stevenson, a brilliant southpaw who is only 27 years old and already a three-weight world champion, is a near-impossible mission to beat at four months' notice, let alone four days'.
But the Doncaster electrician is going to be taking part in a prominent world title fight on a bill populated by elite world champions and with some of the biggest names in the sport watching from ringside.
"Everyone's an underdog against Shakur. He [Padley] ain't going to win unless he gets ultra lucky. But he'll have a right go," Hearn said.
"If anyone's going to get that opportunity I'm really happy that it's a Brit," he added. "Changing their life."
Padley added: "One hundred per cent life-changing opportunity. It will set me up for my future as well.
"But the win will do so much more. That is what my focus is on."
The Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol rematch will be live on Saturday February 22 on Sky Sports Box Office. Book now!
