Degale goes pro

1:16pm Tuesday 2nd December 2008

Great Britain's Olympic boxing champion James DeGale has turned professional and signed up with promoter Frank Warren.

Warren has also signed DeGale's Olympic colleague Billy Joe Saunders, and Frankie Gavin, whose dream of Beijing gold was shattered when he failed to make his required weight.

The three former amateurs will make their professional debuts in 2009.

By turning professional, the trio become ineligible to compete at the London Olympics in 2012.

Warren believes all three can transfer their amateur performances to the professional ranks and go all the way to the top.

Warren said: "I'm delighted to have signed James, Frankie and Billy Joe, and I'm very excited about working with them in the future.

"I think they will all become world champions, and after their success as amateurs, the public is really going to get behind them and will want to watch their progress through the ranks."

Middleweight DeGale, who revealed he would be paid "something not far off" £2million over two years, admitted he had thought long and hard about remaining amateur until the London Olympics but the prospect of securing his financial future persuaded him to turn professional.

He told BBC Radio Five Live: "When I got back from the Olympics there was a bit telling me to stay for 2012. I've got a good relationship with (coach) Terry Edwards and everything was going right.

"After thinking about it and calming down you have to think about yourself and your family and I could secure the rest of my life money-wise. I've done the pinnacle of every amateur boxer's career, winning the Olympic gold medal."