When Andy Murray punched the air after his historic Wimbledon triumph on Sunday (July 7) it was the reaction of a man who knows a fair a bit about boxing. Outside of tennis it is his favourite sport - he has even sparred with his great pal Amir Khan - and no doubt he'll now be happy to pass on a few tips to that may help our noble artists break an age-old jinx.

Here is one Olympic gold medallist who has successfully gone on to win a World Championship - which is how Wimbledon is generally recognised in tennis. This is an achievement no British Olympic boxing champion has accomplished. As yet.

None of the five post-war post-war gold medallists up to 2012, have acquired a world pro belt.

Three, flyweight Terry Spinks, (Melbourne 1956), middleweight Chris Finnegan (Mexico City 1968) and not-so-super--heavyweight Audley Harrison (Sydney 2000) all went on to challenge for one but failed.

Lightweight Dick McTaggart (1956) never turned pro while middleweight James DeGale (Beijing 2008) still awaits the opportunity.

But what about Lennox Lewis, some may ask? Most forget his 1988 super-heavyweight gold was won in a Canadian vest - the country for which, though born in London's West Ham, he has dual citizenship.


Oddly enough, three other British Olympians who won lesser medals - Khan, Richie Woodhall and Alan Minter - did attain pro World Championship status, but in boxing all that glittered in the Games was not gold.

So maybe the 2012 Olympic super-heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua was making mental notes about Murray's aptitude and attitude as he watched his progress from the Royal Box at Wimbledon last week.

The leaked news that Joshua is to join Eddie Hearn's mushrooming Matchroom stable was obviously overshadowed by Murray's great moment.

Both fighter and promoter have tweeted that such information is "premature" but the reason for the delay in its confirmation is surely because promoter Hearn did not want the impact to be lost in the understandably wild euphoria of Murray's victory.

Like fellow 2012 gold medallist Luke Campbell it appears Joshua has opted to take the orthodox professional route by also joining the fight emporium run by the prodigal son of the ubiquitous Barry Hearn in a seven-figure four-year deal in which a significant factor is regular exposure under Hearn's exclusive contract with Sky TV.

Campbell, 25, makes his paid debut on an open air show, also televised by Sky, at the Hull KR's Craven Park rugby league ground in his home-town this Saturday (July 13) where it is expected Joshua will be introduced from the ring as his new stablemate.

Joshua, 23, who hasn't thrown a punch since the Olympics, and has had a foot operation, has been under pressure to make up his mind whether to take the pro plunge or remain with the GB squad, a decision that had been required imminently with the World Amateur Championships looming in the autumn.


Although GB have dropped out from the money-earning World Series Boxing after just one season, Joshua was desperately wanted for the the hybrid AIBA Professional Boxing tournament (APB) created by world governing body AIBA's fiercely-ambitious overlord Dr C K Wu, and which controversially allows fighters to box professionally while retaining their Olympic eligibility.

"I want to be a proper world champion, not boxing in some back street venue in a foreign country with no-one knowing who you are or who you are fighting," Campbell told insidethegames in a recent interview.

Campbell's comment and Joshua's subsequent switch are a sobering reminder to Wu that when push comes to punch, most top amateurs will invariably go down the tried and trusted route to professionalism.

AIBA should also note the mounting opposition to their intention of professionalising boxing in the Olympics, major fistic elements in the Britain, the United States, Africa and much of Europe voicing fierce condemnation.

Most professional boxers of my acquaintance feel the same. David Haye, the former heavyweight world champion, does not mince his words. "I think its a bad thing that pros should be allowed to compete at the Olympics, it's not fair," he says.

Haye, who won a silver medal at the 2001 World Amateur Championships, adds: "I was an amateur for 12 years and competed as a pro for last 10, during which I have had 12 round fights and several World Championship bouts.

"To go back to the Olympics and to fight potentially a 17-year-old boy, who's only had 20 fights would be ridiculous, and dangerous. It should not be allowed.

"The Olympics are for younger kids and amateurs who have striven to win a medal. Rather than pros going back to the amateur level, it should always be the other way round."


Haye believes Joshua is making the right move. Had he elected to join Britain's Euro champ Andrew Selby at APB, and get beaten either there or in October's World Championships in Kazakhstan, he would have had to knock a couple of noughts off his eventual market value.

I understand Joshua had seriously considered linking up with the former world heavyweight champion Lewis, with whom he spent some time earlier this year. Multi-millionaire Lewis is now planning to invest in his own fight academy in Jamaica, training, managing and promoting young fighters from all over the world. "I see myself as a sort of professor of boxing," he says.

Joshua may well have benefitted from such heavyweight tuition but equally he might not have been too impressed with Lewis's failure to revive the flawed fortunes of the 2008 Olympic bronze medallist David Price, for whom, it was case of once smitten twice shy in Liverpool on Saturday (July 6) when veteran American Tony Thompson emphatically repeated his previous ko victory.

Lewis had been drafted in to coach and condition British heavyweight champion Price but even he couldn't put muscles on chins.

Joshua had also talked with British promoter Frank Warren, who believed they had a deal, and Oscar de la Hoya's US-based Golden Boy. But one of the problems would have been Joshua obtaining an American visa and and work permit because of his albeit relatively minor drugs conviction for which he received community service two years ago.

Joshua's anticipated defection means that Team GB have now lost half their Class of 2012, with middleweight bronze winner Anthony Ogogo now a Golden Boy and lightweight Tom Stalker, the team captain, another Hearn capture.

But better news is that welter silver medallist Fred Evans has decided to stay on for Rio, together current world number one flyweight Selby.


And Nicola Adams, whose ever-sunny disposition has done so much to enhance women's sport, insists a professional career was never a consideration, despite a number of offers including one from Amir Khan's organisation.

Adams, 30, who retained her European flyweight title last weekend when two other British women, Lisa Whiteside and Savannah Marshall, also won gold, says: "There are still thing I want to achieve. I want to get a gold medal in the World Championships and be the first British boxer to become a double Olympic champion."

The ambitions and Joshua and Campbell now take a different turn. I believe Joshua will make his first pro appearance on the undercard of the proposed Haye-Tyson Fury fight in Manchester on 28 September, while the tall, fresh-faced southpaw Campbell has surprisingly elected to move up several weight divisions and will box Andy Harris, a 30-year-old light-welter in Hull on Saturday.

He explains:" I know it's a big step up from bantam but I'm eight or nine kilos heavier now than at the Olympics and there's still nothing of me though I'm punching that much harder."

The last time I spoke to Campbell he said he still had to decide who should be in his corner. Maybe he and Big Josh should give Andy Murray a call.

Alan Hubbard is a sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.