Tommy Welch has described how a chance trip to a Saudi Arabian gym almost turned a holiday into a business trip.

On November 15, Welch (16-0, 9 KOs) will box London’s Richard Riakporhe (18-1, 14 KOs) in the latter's second heavyweight appearance. The fight will take place at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as part of the Chris Eubank Jr-Conor Benn 2 undercard, with The Ring: Unfinished Business to be screened worldwide on DAZN.

Welch will be boxing on by far the biggest stage he has ever appeared on but the 30-year-old from Brighton has been actively chasing a big chance.

In February, he boxed his way to a six-round win over Belarusian trial horse Viktar Chvarkou, and rewarded himself with a scouting trip to Saudi Arabia to watch the IBF heavyweight title fight between Daniel Dubois and Joseph Parker.

"I almost manifested myself an opportunity against Joe Parker," Welch told talkSPORT.

"I went to the Mike Tyson gym in Saudi with my dad. I see 'Big Bang' [Chinese heavyweight, Zhilei Zhang] in the gym on the pads and I thought, 'He's not as big as I thought he was gonna be to be'.

"I stood next to him and assumed he was gonna be bigger than what he actually was. I was watching his pads and I know he's obviously just going through the motions. I said to my dad, 'If anything weird happens here with with the German [Agit Kabayel] I would step in'. My dad laughed and he was like, 'Don't be stupid'.

I said, 'No seriously, I think speed would cause him a lot of problems’. He thought I was just going on a bit of a mad tangent. That day I read that Dubois pulled out against Parker and said 'this could be it'."

Welch’s father, Scott - who once held the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles and challenged Henry Akinwande for the WBO title in 1997 - got in touch with Spencer Brown of Goldstar Promotions to express their interest in the fight and, for a short time, Welch began to believe he would be handed an unlikely opportunity.

"They come back with an offer. I said, 'Yes'. I was excited," Welch said.

"I was ringing my team telling them they might need to book some flights because we could be in the ring in two days' time. They were happy but then [Martin] Bakole got confirmed. I was a little bit disappointed if I’m honest.”

Welch has made slow but steady progress since turning professional in 2020 and a fight with former WBO titleholder Parker, would have represented a monumental step up in class.

48 hours later, Parker provided Welch with a graphic illustration of the level he would have been competing at and knocked out the highly-rated Bakole inside two rounds.

Still, his willingness to throw his name into the hat and take a risk certainly seemed to make an impression with the right people. He has now been handed a much more sensible opportunity to make a big impression.

"Riakporhe is a top level fighter in my eyes," Welch said. "He was British and Commonwealth champion, literally done what my dad did at heavyweight, at cruiserweight. I'm not a big heavyweight and my dad wasn't - it's going to be a good fight."