By Duncan Mackay

Anthony Ogogo at London 2012December 27 - Anthony Ogogo, a member of Britain's successful boxing squad at London 2012, is to turn professional, it has been announced.


The 24-year-old middleweight from Lowestoft, who won an Olympic bronze medal, has been recruited by legendary Oscar De La Hoya Golden Boy Promotions.

Founded by six-weight world champion De La Hoya and based in Los Angeles, Golden Boy are renowned as the biggest boxing promotional company in the world.

"I am delighted to be signing with the premier promoter in boxing, Golden Boy Promotions," said Ogogo.

"So many great fighters have come before me at Golden Boy and in the coming years I hope to live up to the standard they've set. I can't wait to get started.

"2012 has been without doubt one of the greatest years of my life.

"To represent my country at a home Games was an incredible experience and the bronze medal I won will always be close to my heart."

Ogogo produced a memorable Olympic moment when he upset Ukraine's world number one Ievgen Khytrov in a thrilling bout on his way to a bronze medal.

Anthony Ogogo with Olympic bronze medalAnthony Ogogo prodcued a number of memorable performances as he won an Olympic bronze medal at London 2012

He had hinted afterwards that he may be tempted to remain amateur to try to win the gold medal at Rio 2016.

But the lure of a professional career has proved too strong.

"Following the Olympics I've been looking to the future and considering a number of options, and feel that the time is now right to turn professional with Golden Boy," said Ogogo.

Richard Schafer, the chief executive of Golden Boy, predicted a glittering future for Ogogo, who has also worked as a part-time model and appeared on the Channel 4 programme, Big Brother. 

"Anthony Ogogo has everything you look for in a boxer," he said.

"He can fight, he has style and charisma and he has amazing crossover potential.

"I have no doubt that Anthony has the skills in the ring and the personality outside of it to make him a global boxing star.

"We are proud to have him on our team and this is just the first step in our growing commitment to British boxing."

Rob McCracken, GB Boxing's performance director, admitted that they had hoped Ogogo would remain as part of the programme.

"It has been very good working with Anthony over the last three years and he did extremely well to win a medal at the 2012 Games after coming through a difficult and demanding qualification route," he said.

"It is disappointing for us that Anthony has decided his future lies away from the GB Boxing squad but he departs with our best regards and we wish him every success in his future career."

Details of Ogogo's professional debut will be announced by Golden Boy shortly.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]