COMMONWEALTH Games boxing hero Andy Morris will make his professional debut in Preston on January 18.

Wythenshawe ace Morris, who thrilled his home-town crowd by fighting his way to a bronze medal, will campaign at featherweight after securing a three-year deal that sees him managed by Frank Maloney and promoted by Frank Warren.

And the man who captained Morris's England team to seven medals in the Manchester games, Steven Bell from Hyde, is expected to follow Morris into the paid ranks later this month.

Morris, 19, is believed to have landed a lucrative package after a sparkling amateur career with the West Wythenshawe club.

He won a national schoolboys' title, two junior ABA and one senior ABA title before representing England in the summer spectacular, where he exceeded expectations by reaching the semi-finals at the Manchester Evening News Arena.

He campaigned at lightweight in the amateurs, but will boil down to featherweight as a professional.

"I have done my time in the amateurs," said Morris, who has sold the landscape gardening business, which he built up from nothing, in order to concentrate on his boxing.

Time is right

"My apprenticeship is over and it's time to turn pro. It was always the case that if the right offer came along, I would turn.

"I certainly wasn't going to hang around for two years in the hope of fighting in the Olympics Games.

"I will spend the next couple of years settling in as a pro, but I already have my sights set on a British title.

"I hope to be done and dusted by the time I am 25 or 26 and to have made enough money that I don't have to go back to gardening again!

"I don't want to be one of those pros who is still hanging in there at 29 or 30. This game is too hard to be messing about like that."

It seems like Morris has been around the pros for years. He has sparred top operators such as Ricky Hatton, Michael Brodie and Stephen Foster junior, and all of them speak highly of his ability.

He will train with Bob Shannon in Openshaw and has already lined up sparring sessions with tough Shaw-based Mongolian Choi Tseveenpurev, Liverpudlian Alex Moon and exciting WBO featherweight champion Scott Harrison. And Warren aims to keep him busy.

After appearing in a four-rounder on the undercard of Anthony Farnell's WBU middleweight title defence at Preston's Guild Hall, Morris is expecting another seven fights before the end of 2003.

Bell, who is something of an amateur veteran at 27, has also decided to fight for cash and will be offered a package by Warren in the next few weeks.

He already trains alongside professionals such as Ricky Hatton, Anthony Farnell and Michael Gomez, who share premises in Hyde with his old Nichols Police amateur club.

Tweet