GALAL YAFAI, the outstanding flyweight gold medallist from the Tokyo Olympics, is turning professional. Heโll be wasting no time. His pro debut will be scheduled for 10 rounds.
โIโm not starting off in the deep end but Iโm not starting off lightly,โ he told Boxing News. โI think Iโll be ready for 10 rounds. Iโm 29. Itโs not like Iโm a 20-year-old whoโs raw. Iโm Olympic champion I should be ready for 10 rounds really.
โWhen we were doing my deal I was saying to the promoters no six rounders, no four rounders. Thereโs no point. Four rounders is an insult to me. Not being big headed, I feel like four rounders thereโs no point. Iโve done numerous WSBs [bouts in the World Series of Boxing]. Iโve boxed the best fighters in WSB over five rounders for years. If anything I was going to start off with eight or 10 rounds and 10 rounds is the one.โ
Heโs signed with Matchroom Boxing and will have his first bout at the O2 Arena in London on February 27.
โI was desperate last year to get it done but there were loads of things, ins and outs you need to do, things like that which I didnโt really understand before. So it took its time. But Iโve got the perfect deal, the perfect promotional company. Iโm just ready to fight now,โ he said. โMatchroom are one of the biggest, especially for me. My brothers [Kal and Gamal] being there, [Matchroom] are British and Eddie Hearnโs a huge promoter in the world. I think they were always going to be one of the main ones [he was considering]. I think it speaks for itself. We all know as boxing fans Matchroom are one of the best in the world. Not just in Britain but in the whole world.
โIt was a perfect fit for me.โ
Matchroom also work with many of the big names in flyweight and super-flyweight division. In the coming weeks for instance they will stage contests with Roman Gonzalez, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, Carlos Cuadras and Julio Cesar Martinez. Galal wants to be fighting at that level within two years.
โIn two years I think I should be ready. You never know with this pro game. It could happen after a year and a half, you never know, but itโll be interesting to see,โ Galal said. โI think if Iโm not in those kind of fights in the next two years then people will be disappointed. Especially as Iโm Olympic champion, Iโm almost expected to be up there quite soon. Itโs not pressure but I think itโs exciting for me. Iโm looking forward to being in them big fights, like you said, sooner rather than later.
โThat was one of the main reasons as well [that he signed with Matchroom], at flyweight, theyโve got a few world champions, I know theyโve got a few light-flyweight world champions that will no doubt come up in a few years, a few super-flyweights. Itโs never been a glamorous division but Eddie Hearn seems to have made it a little bit more glamorous now.โ
Galalโs brothers Kal and Gamal are already Matchroom fighters. The three Birmingham brothers boxing eventually on the same show would be highly appealing. โI think itโs inevitable. The three of us boxing under the same banner, for Matchroom, it would be nice to box together before our careers end. I should say their careers end, Iโm just starting. It would be nice, hopefully it can happen in the near future. As long as Iโm a world champion and Iโm doing well, thatโs the main thing.โ
He does promise to bring the same seek-and-destroy approach, that so impressed at the Tokyo Games, with him to professional boxing. โI think I have to. I donโt know how to do anything else,โ Galal says. โIโve got to be smarter, I know. But thatโs what got me to the top of amateur boxing, so hopefully it can take me to the top of professional boxing.โ