Brendan Irvine will opt against joining the exodus of Irish amateur boxers joining the professional ranks, while fellow Rio Olympian David Oliver Joyce is weighing up his future.
Belfast native Irvine is set to buck the trend of moving to the paid game as the European Games silver medallist intends to stay within Ireland’s High Performance Programme in an effort to reach the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Irish boxing’s High Performance Unit is set to lose world champion Michael Conlan and three-time Olympian Paddy Barnes to the professional ranks, with the pair both in negotiations with promoters, while Steven Donnelly also looks likely to jump ship.
Meanwhile, the futures of fellow Rio Olympians Joyce, Joe Ward and Katie Taylor remain uncertain after Ireland’s disappointing campaign in Brazil as Irish boxing failed to medal at the Games for the first time since 2004.
Irvine, however, is set to stay put as he aims to peak for Tokyo.
The 20-year-old and his coaches considered the Rio Games to be a learning curve for the young Belfast boxer as Irvine only qualified for Rio after moving up in weight to flyweight (52kg) last April due to the fact that Barnes had already booked a place at light-flyweight (49kg).
With the Rio Games being just his second competitive tournament at the higher weight class, Irvine admitted that he has yet to grow into the weight.
“Some of the boys at my weight, I’m like a twig compared to them" - Brendan Irvine
“I’m more than likely going to stay amateur because I’m not fully developed yet,” explained Irvine.
“Some of the boys at my weight, I’m like a twig compared to them. They’re like wee, small tanks, so it’s going to take time for me to build into the weight and to fully develop.
“I’ll more likely stay amateur and try to get to that dream of an Olympic medal.”
While Irvine was outclassed in his Olympic debut, losing out to Uzbekistan’s Shakhobidin Zhoiroz, the fact that Zhoiroz went on to claim flyweight gold provided some consolation.
“You don’t want to be getting beat by someone who goes on and gets beaten in their next fight,” said Irvine.
“It’s not that it’s good to say that you were beaten by the Olympic champion, but it does have that sort of ring to it.
“I suppose you can say you were beaten by the Olympic champion, it’s not like you were beaten by someone with no name.
“It’s just the luck of the draw and if I was on the other side of the draw, you never know how things could have gone,” added the 20-year-old.
It is believed that Barnes may announce details of his pro move as early as this week, while Conlan and Donnelly both have pro offers on the table.
Joyce already has some experience of professional-style boxing having previously competed in AIBA’s APB competition.
The 29-year-old lightweight will take some time out before making a call on his future, having won one bout in Rio before a competitive loss to world number three Albert Selimov.
“I’ll take a couple of weeks off, go on holidays with the family and then we’ll make a decision on what’s next for me,” said Joyce.
“It was a long time coming. I won’t say it’s the end of my [amateur] career, but it [the Olympics] was a long time coming and something I always wanted. We’ll see in the next few weeks what I’m going to do.”
