TEAM IRELAND COULD be set to lose one of its medal-winning Olympic boxers as John Joe decides the next step in his career.
The Mullingar fighter, who lost out to Britain’s Luke Campbell to claim silver in the bantamweight category at London 2012, will tonight announce whether or not he will turn professional on RTE’s The Saturday Night Show.
And while the fighter himself has branded the article “rumours” on Twitter, The Irish Times has reported that he has agreed to sign up with Amir Khan Promotions.
He criticised the piece in a number of tweets (which were later deleted), before writing:
The 23-year-old was in Dublin earlier this week to discuss his future with the Irish Sports Council, who tabled an offer to keep Nevin in the High Performance unit for the next four years.
And while the likes of Bernard Dunne and Andy Lee made the switch to carve out successful careers in professional boxing, coach Billy Walsh believes Nevin should remain amateur.
“For me no, he should stay amateur,” Walsh said on the Miriam O’Callaghan Show.
“We have done really, really well over the last 10 years with the squad and manager to keep most of them amateur.”
His move would be a huge loss to the Irish boxing team, which is aiming to add to their tallies at the Beijing and London Games in Brazil.
