Josh Kelly has become the latest British boxer who competed at last year’s Olympic Games to turn professional after signing a promotional contract with Matchroom Boxing.

Kelly — who reached the last 16 in the welterweight division at Rio 2016 before losing to eventual gold medallist Daniyar Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan — will now turn his attention to the paid ranks, where he will be trained by the highly-rated Adam Booth.

The 22-year-old will make his professional debut at the welterweight limit on April 15 at the SSE Arena on the undercard of Ricky Burns’ world light-welterweight unification title fight against Julius Indongo.

Kelly joins fellow Olympians Lawrence Okolie, Joe Cordina and Katie Taylor in the Matchroom stable, while Nicola Adams has linked up with promoter Frank Warren.

“I want to get fans across the whole of Britain and beyond to want to watch me and come to my fights. I think they’ll see flash and flair, and there will be KOs too. I can mix it up and fight to different game plans,” said Kelly.

“There’s going to be ups and downs because I’m a bit of a rollercoaster ride, but when I put my mind to it I know I can do a lot in the sport.

“I drew the eventual champion in the Olympics and I really think that there were just two or three punch differences in each of the rounds, it could’ve been a different story but that’s how it goes. I’ve moved on from that.

“I feel I can go all the way with Adam training me. We’re on the same wavelength even though we’ve only just started because I feel I’m learning every day.

“I’ve always been a quick puncher but thought I could punch hard too. Slight adjustments Adam has made has already got me punching much harder.”