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Frank Warren signs Belfast amateur star

His decision to enter the pro game became easier after witnessing professional boxing first hand a short while ago in his native Belfast.

“I was invited down to Windsor Park for the Frampton fight by Frank and it was just an amazing experience. I met the team, the fighters and everyone were just great to me, it made my decision to sign a very easy one.

“Since I was seven years old it’s been a dream of mine to turn professional.” said the 21-year-old, a feat he has now achieved after a long and successful campaign in the amateurs.

“I’ve had over 130 fights, 110 of them in Ireland only losing 11 times. I won 6 national titles including an Irish senior national title earlier this year. I boxed 40 times for Ireland and boxed for them in the World and European championships.

“I also boxed in the WSB [World Series Boxing] for Italia Thunder in my final amateur fight in April and had a good win there as well.”

Agyarko won his World Series Boxing bout after being drafted into the Italian team and impressed in the professional-styled contest. He managed to defeat and impressively stop his French opponent in the fourth round of their five-round fight; the only boxer to claim a stoppage victory during France Fighting Rooster’s 3-2 victory against the Italia Thunder.

Despite all his success, it was missing out at the pinnacle of the amateurs which was the catalyst to his decision to turn professional.

“My goal was to go to Rio [2016 Olympics] and The Gold Coast [2018 Commonwealth Games] but I narrowly missed out on both.

“I was going to stick around for the next Olympics because I was number one in Ireland and the qualifiers were just around the corner but personally it just felt like it was the right time to turn over to the professional ranks.” said Agyarko.

He continued: “My style of boxing is built for the pro’s and even from a very young age, turning pro is something I’ve always wanted to do.

“I’m one of those fighters which have no problem going on the back or front foot. I’m a big hitter for a middleweight and people think because of this I can’t box but I do like to use my speed and my boxing ability to beat opponents as well and can adapt to any fighter I face.”

Turning professional means Agyarko will be moving away from Belfast’s Holy Trinity boxing club and has migrated to London to join up with boxing trainers’ Al Smith and Eddie Lam at the iBox Gym.

“It’s a great gym with great fighters like Bradley Skeete, Johnny Garton, Johnny Coyle. I was over for twelve days training with them and I enjoyed my time there, so I decided this is where I want to be trained.”