IRISH ELITE MIDDLEWEIGHT champion Jason Harty has turned professional and signed a promotional deal with Frank Warren.
The 19-year-old former European Schoolboy silver medallist and European Junior champion won his first national Elite title in just his second Championships back in November, besting Crumlin’s John Joe Nevin in the 75kg decider at the National Stadium.
Limerick’s Harty, a product of the Rathkeale Boxing Club whose twin brother Jamie is also a highly rated amateur, had won a national Intermediate title just weeks prior.
Though a bona fide Paris 2024 Olympic prospect (he would have been behind Gabriel Dossen and Michael Nevin in the 75kg pecking order this time around as Bernard Dunne’s squad selection for the Tokyo qualifiers looms), Harty has opted not to hang around for four years and instead taken the plunge into the pro ranks.
His brother-in-law, Paddy Donovan, made the same decision last summer and is currently 3-0(2KOs) as a professional. The 21-year-old ‘Real Deal’ is promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank in the States and is trained and managed by Limerick’s former middleweight world champion Andy Lee.
For Harty, such arrangements are yet to be confirmed but he will join Belfast’s Caoimhin Agyarko [6-0, 3KOs] and Westmeath’s John Joyce [2-0] on Warren’s promotional books.
