Vijender will make his debut as a professional boxer on October 10

LONDON: Bhiwani boy Vijender Singh will make his debut as a professional boxer in the Manchester Arena on October 10.
The highly decorated Singh is India's most prominent name in boxing having won the silver medal at the 2006 and 2014 Commonwealth Games, bronze at the 2006 Asian Games, 2009 World Amateur Championships and 2010 Commonwealth Games and gold at the 2010 Asian Games.
Rated the world's number one middleweight in 2009 and having won the bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Singh now wants to be India's first ever world professional boxing champion, burying the dream of another Olympic appearance.
The 29-year-old from Haryana will kick off his pro career on the huge double world title show headlined by Terry Flanagan's WBO World Lightweight title defence against Diego Magdaleno and Liam Smith's challenge for the Vacant WBO World Super-Welterweight title against John Thompson.
To make the transition from the amateur code to the professionals, Singh has set up his UK training base for the fight in Manchester at the gym of top trainer Lee Beard, who trains current hot talents Jack Catterall and Adrian Gonzalez.
Singh's first fight will be over four rounds in the middleweight division, against an opponent to be confirmed shortly.
Singh said "I'm so excited to be making my professional debut at the Manchester Arena and to show that India is the new force in professional boxing. Training now as a professional is totally different to my amateur regime."
Francis Warren from Queensberry Promotions said "We've all worked very hard to get Vijender here. The Manchester Arena show is a fantastic event for Vijender to make his debut on and it's headlined with two big world title fights on BoxNation and one day that can be him."