Olympic gold medallist Lauren Price says she might not turn professional despite being approached by Eddie Hearn to turn over after her success in Tokyo.
Price won the middleweight gold on the final day of the Games adding to the gold medal won by Galal Yafai at flyweight as Great Britain won six medals overall, the best return since 1920.
The 27-year-old from Wales has a full set of gold medals, having won them at the World Championships, Commonwealth Games, European Games as well as the Olympics.
But she has hinted that she will not turn professional until after the Paris Olympics in 2024, as she tires to match Nicola Adams and Claressa Shields, who both won two Olympic gold medals.
“I’ve had a lot of people message me - obviously the big man as well, Eddie Hearn, stuff like that,” Price said on BBC Radio Wales. “There are a lot of opportunities there, but for now I’m just enjoying the moment. I’ll take a few weeks off and chill out and then go from there.
“But for me, I love what I do – I’ve got a great life training in Sheffield, training with world class coaches in a world class programme. I can’t thank GB Boxing enough so for me there’s everything that’s coming up as well.”
Price had been No 1 seed at the Olympics, having won the European qualifying tournament in Paris in June. She had hinted before that she might not turn professional whatever the outcome in Tokyo because she believed that women’s amateur boxing – certainly at middleweight – was stronger than in the pros and she feared she might have won everything she needed to win in only a handful of fights. Professional can now compete in the Olympics, but it is Great Britain’s policy not to consider professionals.
There are big fights out there, notably against Shields and Savannah Marshall, who holds the WBO middleweight title and who represented Britain at the previous two Olympics, having also won gold at the World Championships and Commonwealth Games, but them aside, as Shields has discovered, rivals at middleweight tend to be thin on the ground in the pros.
One advantage would be, because Tokyo was delayed for 12 months, the wait for the next Olympics is only three years compared to the normal four.
“For now, my heart is obviously staying on with Team GB and doing another Olympics,” Price said.
“You look at the likes of Nicola Adams and Katie Taylor. They both did two cycles and Katie Taylor at the minute she is smashing it up in the pros as well.
“Being a man, it’s different. In the women’s game, it’s getting bigger and bigger all the time so another three years it will be bigger again and I can just go from there then.”
Hearn has indicted that he is keen to approach several members of the Great Britain Olympic team and this week confirmed that Peter McGrail, the featherweight who failed to win a medal in Tokyo, was the first of the team to turn professional with him, and will be making his debut in Liverpool on October 9.
Yafai, the flyweight gold medal-winner, also seems likely to be heading for Hearn’s Matchroom camp, as Hearn promotes both of Yafai’s older boxing brothers, Kal, the former WBA super-flyweight champion and a 2008 Olympian, and Gamal, the former European super-bantamweight champion.
Frazer Clarke, the super-heavyweight bronze medal-winner, Ben Whittaker and Pat McCormack, the silver medal-winners, and Luke McCormack have all indicated they intend to turn professional. It is not a bad time to turn professional, with Hearn looking to build up his stable on DAZN, while Sky are looking for names to fill the void he left behind by switching broadcasters.
Price said that Hearn had got in touch to talk over the future.
“He’s asked to have a chat with me and stuff like that,” Price said. “He’s obviously the main man and I don’t know; it’s opened my options up, but for now I’m just going to take some rest and enjoy the moment.
“When you win an Olympic medal and that it changes your life doesn’t it? And starting off as a pro, if you’ve got that type of background, you’ve reached the top in the amateur game... then the price, as you say, will be pretty interesting.”