Should Degale turn pro?

[Shamrock]

My heart says stay amateur and my head says turn pro. I would love it for us to have an Olympic champion defend his title at home. What a lift it would be. It would get people interested in boxing who maybe wouldn't have been.

Having said that a likely £1m to turn pro is a huge temptation, He could suffer a career ending injury in the four years between now and 2012 and then the chance of a life time is gone. The other problem is that amateur boxing is moving further and further away from pro boxing with the scoring system and the rules. I think it is becoming so much more difficult now for amateurs to convert to the proffesional arena. (see the comments about audley and Amir not liking to get hit further up in this thread).

It is now a real issue that if he stays amateur for another 4 years the process of unlearning the amateur game and learning the pro game will be difficult.

The money/sponsorship needs to be increased to compensate guys like Degale to make staying amateur a choice that will not leave him in an unstable financial position. We are way behind the majority of the rest of the world when it comes to financing our amateur heroes. Who ever is in charge of the budget needs to realise this.

26 is not too old for Degale to turn pro and to defend gold in the Olympics in your own country, without trying to sound like a cliche, is something money just can't buy.

I wish him luck which ever road he takes.