JOE WARD is on the brink of a move to the pro ranks.

Ward, one of Ireland’s best hopes of a medal at the Tokyo Olympics, is expected to leave the IABA set-up this summer.

1 Joe Ward is on the brink of a move to the pro ranks

US-based promoter Lou DiBella is the frontrunner to sign up the Westmeath light-heavyweight, 25.

But DiBella is expected to be joined in the race for the fighter’s signature by some of the world’s biggest fight bosses in the coming weeks.

SunSport understands that Eddie Hearn, who is guiding the career of undisputed women’s lightweight champ Katie Taylor, almost captured Ward earlier this year.

A deal had been thrashed out which would have seen Ward make his paid debut on the St Patrick’s weekend card in Philadelphia which featured Taylor’s win over Rose Volante.



GOT THE TOOLS

But that link-up went cold, with DiBella — who has promoted Irish duo Andy Lee and Matthew Macklin in recent years — taking up pole position.

Hearn could yet revive his interest, while rival Frank Warren is thought to be keen on Ward and a number of Stateside promoters are also monitoring the situation. It means that the southpaw sensation is unlikely to captain Ireland at this month’s European Games in Minsk.

Named as one of 13 boxers in the Irish squad last week, Ward’s recent absence from training camps and imminent departure will be a blow to high performance director Bernard Dunne’s hopes of topping the medals table.

Beijing Olympic hero Kenneth Egan — who was succeeded by Ward as Ireland’s top light-heavyweight before retiring in 2013 — reckons the young gun has some of the tools required to make it.

He told SunSport: “I took two things away from fighting him. First, it’s his physical strength. Not his punching power but his physicality.

“And two, he’s very, very hard to hit. He has fantastic distance control and reactions.

“I found him hard to hit but he could hit me. And I fought him when he was 17, 18 and 19. Now he’s much stronger.”

WEIGHT CONCERNS

But Egan does have concerns over what weight Ward would campaign at in the pro ranks. He is currently an amateur light-heavyweight, at 81kg. In the pro ranks, the light-heavyweight limit is 175lb (79.4kg), meaning Ward would have to boil down. Up a category, cruiserweight fighters clock in at 200lb (90.72kg).

Egan explained: “The first question I would have is what weight is he going to fight at?

“Cruiserweight he’s too small for and he’d have a real battle to get down to light-heavyweight. Super-middleweight — no chance. At light-heavyweight all the champs are Eastern Bloc fighters, it’s a hard, hard division right now.

“Joe is a brilliant fighter over three rounds but the pro game, you’re in the ring an awful lot longer. I’m sure that will all fall into place with the right training.

“Where he’s going to be based is important. Joe is a home bird, a family man, he has kids. So it’s a big move for him.”

It is believed that Ward’s mentors closer to home will attempt to persuade him to stick around for Tokyo.

But with AIBA in the news recently for all the wrong reasons, Egan understands why a young fighter would opt out.

He added: “I can see where he is coming from. The shine has been darkened over the Olympics since Rio with all the shenanigans that have been going on — the corruption, the money laundering, the millions that Russia were going to pay to bail AIBA out.

LOST ITS SHINE

“It doesn’t bode well for amateur boxing as a whole.

“He could sacrifice another year and not even qualify. If he has the desire to turn pro, he may as well go for it.

“But at the weight he’s at, I kinda see him being between a rock and a hard place.”

Irish Traveller Ward is one of Ireland’s most successful amateur boxers of all time.

He burst on to the senior scene in 2011 after golds at the 2009 World Junior and 2010 World Youth Championships.

The Moate lefty dethroned Egan in his first Irish Elite 81kg final — aged just 17. He went on to become European champion that summer while still not yet 18, repeating the feat in 2015 and 2017. In 2013, he was denied by injury.

In the World Championships, Ward has also shown his class by winning a bronze medal in 2013 while on the comeback trail, before upgrading to silver in 2015 and 2017.

But the Olympics have so far proved to be his Everest and point to why he is potentially on the brink of leaving amateur boxing just 13 months out from Tokyo.

His bid to make it to the 2012 Games in London went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport following a contentious qualifier defeat to Turkey’s Bahram Muzaffer in Turkey.

And having made it to Rio, Ward’s campaign ended in heartbreak. He was dumped out of the competition in his first outing against Ecuador’s Carlos Andres Mina, having been docked points in the second and third rounds of a scrappy bout.

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In the years since, Ward has been named captain of the Ireland team as they rebuilt under Dunne following the pro moves made by stalwarts such as Taylor, Michael Conlan and Paddy Barnes.

Ward stuck around to ‘show the lads how it’s done — how to go to Majors and win medals’, as he told RTÉ in 2017.

But with AIBA now locked out of boxing at the Olympics and the pathway to Tokyo unclear as the IOC muse over how to organise the competition themselves, it appears Ward has lost patience.