Lawrence Okolie, who represented Great Britain at last year’s Olympics, has signed a professional contract with promoter Eddie Hearn and will compete at cruiserweight.

Okolie, 24, only took up boxing while working at McDonalds and being inspired by Anthony Joshua winning Olympic gold at London 2012.

Initially, Okolie saw boxing as a way of losing weight and to stop the bullying he received — but now he is hoping for a busy 2017 to launch his professional boxing career.

“I want to be the best cruiserweight that Britain has seen,” said Okolie.

“David Haye has done great things, so has Johnny Nelson and many others, but I want to cement my legacy, have my name go down in history and maybe follow Haye by winning the heavyweight crown too.

“I want to get some excitement going in the division, not just from the fans but also have other cruiserweights training hard and wanting to fight me, because I want to be in great and exciting fights.

“I want to have six to eight fights in 2017 and I’ll be looking to get six to eight knockouts — I mean business.

“Even though I’ve only had 26 fights, people are going to say that I should be able to beat everyone because I’ve been to the Olympics. There’s pressure there but it’ll bring the best out of me. Even if people expect me to win, because then I will want to win in style and make a statement.”

Okolie was not one of Team GB’s boxing medallists at Rio 2016 but he enters the paid ranks with big ambitions to emulate the success of fellow Briton David Haye, who won world titles at cruiserweight and heavyweight.

Okolie, who lost in his second heavyweight bout at Rio last summer, is unlikely to be the last British Olympian to turn professional.

Double Olympic gold medallist Adams, 34, has hinted that she may enter the paid ranks while 31-year-old Joyce, who won silver at super-heavyweight, is considering offers to turn professional.

“I’ll be ready early next year, that’s the plan,” Joyce said in December.

“I’d like to have six to eight fights ideally. I want to be busy. I haven’t decided who I’m going to go with promotional wise, I’ve got ideas, I’m in talks, but I haven’t anything solid to say.

“It’s very exciting. There are plenty of good heavyweights who are established now and who are coming up as well.

“It’ll be a case of one fight at a time but obviously I have a long-term plan and goals: British title, Commonwealth, Europeans, worlds.”

Light-heavyweight bronze medallist Joshua Buatsi is also attracting interest from professional promoters.