Ask a fight fan what their dream job might be in the sport and more than a few fingers could point in the direction of Dev Sahni.
The Queensberry Promotions stalwart is front and center of much of their output, with his passion, enthusiasm, and, some might say, humor often on display.
From a largely administrative role behind the scenes to hosting grandiose press conferences for several of the sport’s major fights and events, Sahni has almost done it all already.
But he wants to do more.
Sahni took A-levels in English, media, and history, and his university degree in media and psychology taught him about the workings of the media, but it did not equip him to become a broadcaster.
What perhaps did help him was being comfortable on stage. He auditioned to be Aladdin in a school production “and it just so happened I was the only brown kid in the year, so they gave it to me like that.”
Dev was relaxed on stage.
In work, as an online marketer, instead of flying Dev had to persuade travellers to take trains across Europe. But in 2014 he got a break. Before Queensberry, there was BoxNation, and he found an email address for someone to reach out to and sent a Hail Mary email with an introduction that said something like: “I really love boxing, I like marketing, I’d like to bring it all together.”
Turns out they were hiring, and the application process came down to Dev and one other, and he was employed as a digital manager.
It hinged, Sahni reckons, on an impassioned plea at the end of the interview.
“I gave this really from-the-heart kind of speech,” he recalled. “Because I wasn’t sure whether I’d done enough in the interviews. I could tick enough boxes for them, I knew my stuff on the digital side, but I just wanted them to know. So I was like, ‘Just to let you know, this is much more than just a job, more than a 9 to 5 thing. This would be my life. This would take over every single thing that I do.’”
Dev was hired and the roller coaster began.
“From there, it’s just been mad,” he smiles.
He didn’t realize how literally not working 9-5 would become. Previously, when he stopped work at 5pm in his old job, he didn’t go home and think about trains.
But with boxing, there was no off switch.
It consumed him. He was bombarded with calls, texts, and emails. At 7, 8, 9pm, he was required to do something.
“And it’s like, ‘Oh shit, this is my life now.’”
“But I’d rather be doing this than not doing it,” he reasoned. “So slowly it just happens and then it becomes natural. And it becomes all that you’re actually thinking about. Your life starts going around that. You build your life around that somewhat. That’s kind of what’s happened with me.”
Dev learned the role and adapted in an ever-changing environment, from behind the camera, to online, to on-stage, and from being in front of camera to hosting some of the biggest press conferences in modern boxing history.
There came a point, however, when he doubled down and became the absolute company man, trolling Queensberry opposition fighters, bigging up his own boxers, and lighting the touch paper on social media.
There was a point when Sahni simply went all-in.
“I just think I found it really fun,” he said, of his antagonistic social media ways. “I found it really fun to wind people up and ruffle feathers. It just kind of happened. I’d put out these little predictions and stuff like that and I’d say, people really don’t like that, but they’re engaging and they’re engaged, so let's play with this a little bit. Right now, I’m all-in on Nick Ball knocking out Inoue… The thing that I did the other day, this is just carefully framing information to wind people up, but also be factual. I talked about what Daniel Dubois had achieved at the age of 27 as a professional boxer compared to Oleksandr Usyk. Dubois’ listed all these great things, he’s world champion, British champion, all of this, etc.
“What did Usyk win as a pro by 27? WBO international. That’s all he’d done. And everyone’s like, ‘No, yeah, but he was in the Olympics.” I’m like, ‘We’re not talking about that.’”
Then there was the infamous “Oleksandr Usyk would never win a British title.”
“I’m still very proud of that,” Dev smiled. “I still see it pop up. Because people get so angry: ‘What do you mean he wouldn’t win a British title?’ Factually, I’m correct, Oleksandr Usyk would never win a British title. That was a bit of a peak that day, because even Tony Bellew replied saying, ‘Yeah, because he’s Ukrainian.’
“I was like, ‘Yes, gotcha. Wonderful.’”
Of course, there is a flipside to playing that role. Dev has publicly shared racial abuse that has been aimed at him, but he finds motivation in the swamp of negativity.
It has also allowed him to find common ground with some of the fighters he spends time with, notably Nottingham star Leigh Wood.
“I’ve talked to a lot of fighters just like, what do you do about this? Leigh Wood in particular. He said that he bookmarks negative tweets or takes screenshots of them and he uses them to drive him to put on a great performance. Then he can go back to those guys later and say, ‘Yeah, now what?’ I’m not doing that. I’m not going back to people who said that I’m shit or anything like that. But I am making a log of it and it does help drive me. When someone tells me I can’t do something and that I’m shit, that makes me just work harder. So yeah, there's a good side to it.”
There have been other tough times, too.
Heavyweight Anthony Joshua didn’t want to play ball with Dev asking him the questions once, which led to a tense and uncomfortable live stand-off. That fed into the online abuse where there were “streams of negativity.”
At that point, Sahni deleted Twitter off the homescreen on his phone and switched off the notifications while he rode out the storm.
“Obviously I’ve always been Queensberry, I’ve always been Tyson Fury, and while they’re always at loggerheads, I would be one of the voices out there saying, ‘No, Fury’s the guy, not Joshua.’ I never said anything personal about him. I was just picking one fighter or several Queensberry fighters – probably all Queensbury fighters – to beat him. But at some point, he’d seen it – and I just didn’t think I’d be on his radar for him to care.”
That is all water under the bridge now, and valuable experience for Dev.
And while he has rubbed plenty up the wrong way, what does the boss, Frank Warren, make of his blatant shilling?
“I don’t know if he knows,” Sahni chuckled.
“I don’t know if he cares. The amazing thing is when people say, ‘Yeah, Frank’s told you to write that,’ like Frank’s telling me to just tell everyone that featherweight’s a step too far for Inoue?!’ Frank’s got more important things to do than to tell me to put out a tweet.
“I don’t know how much of it he sees or even knows. I think others in the office will be more on top of it. I’ll might get a word every now and again, if I go too far.’”
One of Dev’s advocates has been George Warren, one of the most influential men in boxing today and a man who has supported Dev as much as anyone.
“George has always seen something in me and believed in me and given me opportunities to shine,” Dev explained.
“Even when, back in the BoxNation days, there was a BoxNation podcast, me and Steve Lillis did that. I’d never done a podcast before, but George wanted me to do it, just sort of trusted me to do it. These press conferences, I’d never done press conferences. I said I’d happily have a go. George facilitated it, backed me, and I’ve done big ones.”
Sahni actually made some of his bones during the pandemic. He hosted virtual pressers and took them in access-restricted bubbles.
As his responsibilities grew, so did his platforms, right the way up to huge Fury events with Francis Ngannou and Oleksandr Usyk.
The Fury-Ngannou one is one of several pinnacles thus far.
On stage, he looked one way and there was Warren, Bob Arum, Fury, and Mike Tyson there… And Sahni handled it all with around three hours’ notice.
Usually, he will have far more time to research and prepare. He will, of course, look up past fights and stats, but he will also explore the boxers’ social media pages, looking for clues about what questions could be important.
Sahni also writes out and rehearses his opening speeches, and he wasn’t doing that 12 months ago.
But he enjoys the challenge of trying to improve. He feels the nerves but not to the point that they cripple him. In fact, he quite enjoys the feeling.
“It feels like these are good nerves,” he said. “These are nerves where I’m doing something that other people aren’t and other people can’t.”
Of course, there’s also his often-viral relationship with the always unimpressed light heavyweight star Artur Beterbiev. Much of Dev’s supposed humor has been lost in translation by the Russian terminator, but one gets the feeling Beterbiev has come round to the persistent Sahni, too.
“We’ve got such a strange relationship, me and Artur Beterbiev, such a strange relationship.
“I think he knows who I am now, and he knows I’ve got a bit of a sense of humor, and he’s got a good sense of humour, so we bounce off each other quite well.”
That provokes another grin, and there are plenty of them from Dev, who is clearly so happy to be doing what he does.
And that is why he doesn’t have an off switch. He says even now his job is “mainly just making sure that I’m always here to do stuff.”
Then he elaborates: “I don’t want to miss the chance to host a press conference or to do an interview with someone just in case someone else steps in, and they do a great job, and they’re amazing. So I just want to always be here, readily available to do it.”
Above all with Dev, it is his passion for boxing that shines.
He is not one of those burned out by the business or the abuse, rather one who thrives in it and rides the waves of unpredictability.
With that in mind, much of his work is wrapped up by fight night, and even that is not enough for him. He wants to be busy right the way through until a fight is done.
“Rather than just seeing me Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then you don’t see me on Saturday, I want you to see me every day. Sorry. I want to be there,” he added.
He wants the trolls to be working as hard as he is?
“Pretty much. Not just weekdays.”
He smiled again: “Pretty much. I just love talking about boxing. I love being around it. I love the sport. And I just do as much as I possibly can until the wheels fall off.”
