Josh Kelly has become the latest British
boxer who competed at last year's Olympic Games to turn professional
after signing a promotional contract with Matchroom Boxing.
Kelly
reached the last 16 in the welterweight division at Rio 2016 before
losing to eventual gold medallist Daniyar Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan and
he will now turn his attention to the paid ranks, where he will be
trained by the highly-rated Adam Booth.
The
22-year-old will make his professional debut at the welterweight limit
on April 15 at the SSE Arena on the undercard of Ricky Burns' world
light-welterweight unification title fight against Julius Indongo.
Kelly joins fellow Olympians Lawrence
Okolie, Joe Cordina and Katie Taylor in the Matchroom stable, while
Nicola Adams has linked up with promoter Frank Warren.
He
said: 'I want to get fans across the whole of Britain and beyond to
want to watch me and come to my fights. I think they'll see flash and
flair, and there will be KOs too. I can mix it up and fight to different
game plans.
'There's going to be ups
and downs because I'm a bit of a rollercoaster ride, but when I put my
mind to it I know I can do a lot in the sport. I've got the right people
around me and all the boxes are ticked for success.
'I drew the eventual champion in the
Olympics and I really think that there were just two or three punch
differences in each of the rounds, it could've been a different story
but that's how it goes. I've moved on from that.
'I
feel I can go all the way with Adam training me. We're on the same
wavelength even though we've only just started because I feel I'm
learning every day. I've always been a quick puncher but thought I could
punch hard too. Slight adjustments Adam has made has already got me
punching much harder.'
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