Nicola Adams took advice from the IBF world heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua, after having sleepless nights about turning professional – but, having made her decision, she intends to emulate him and her hero Muhammad Ali by following up Olympic gold with a world title.
“I speak to Anthony quite a lot and he said I’d love it: the lights, the cameras, being able to control your own destiny,” she said after signing a promotional deal with Frank Warren and BT Sport. “I love the big shows. That is just me. Even when I walk to the ring, I’m smiling and waving to the crowds.
“I had a few sleepless nights. I was like ‘I could go to Tokyo and become a triple Olympic champion, solely focus on acting, or turn pro and become a world champion’, so it was a tough decision. But I decided that I wanted to do something new, and I wanted to do what my hero Muhammad Ali did by going to the pro ranks and becoming a world champion.”
Adams, who will make her debut on 8 April in Manchester, before fighting in her home town of Leeds a month later, has set her sights on winning the world title within a year. She also insists that even at 34 her best days lie ahead of her.
“I feel like these are my peak years,” she said. “And as a pro I will be able to plant my feet a lot more, and get a lot more power in my punches and just take my time picking my shots. So hopefully next year I’ll be going for a world title and lighting up the scene.”
Few would be surprised if Adams succeeded in becoming the first woman to be an Olympic gold medallist for Britain and a professional world title holder – a feat that would make her only the third Briton to do so after Joshua and James DeGale. After all, she is used to making history. In 2001 she became the first female boxer to represent England; in 2007 the first to win a European boxing medal; in 2008 the first to a world championship medal; in 2012 the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal.
She also won gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2016 world championships, before retaining her Olympic title by beating France’s Sarah Ourahmoune in Rio. No wonder Warren called her one of his “most exciting” signings in his 35 years as a promoter. “I am eating humble pie because I said I would never promote women’s boxing,” he said.
“But after London 2012, cabbies were always mentioning Nicola and I was thinking ‘Am I a dinosaur?’ In fact, more people were talking about Nicola than Joshua. She has totally changed my mind about it. Over the last eight years there has been a tremendous influx of women into the sport and I want to be part of that. We are going to have some big nights ahead. We intend to lead her to become a multiple world champion.”
Warren also indicated that if Adams progressed quickly in the professional ranks she could even emulate the Ukrainian Vasyl Lomachenko, who followed up winning double Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012 by winning a professional world title in his third fight. “She’ll need a couple of fights to settle down and we’ll see where we go. But maybe she’ll do a Lomachenko, go out there and do it quick. Why not? Her pedigree is as good as his.”
Adams laughed when she was asked whether she was aware of Warren’s previously held views about women’s boxing. “I’m very aware!” she replied. “But if I’ve been able to change Frank’s mind, I believe I can change anyone’s mind about women’s boxing. Signing with Frank was probably unexpected for a lot of people but they believed in my dream, and they have the right set-up to help me become a world champion and take women’s boxing to the next level.”
Adams, who is yet to decide on her new trainer after leaving GB Boxing, knows that women’s professional boxing has little of the prestige or money of the men’s ranks – the best professional flyweights in the world, who include the Mexican Jessica “Kika” Chavez and the German Susi “Killer Queen” Kentikian, are barely known by hardened aficionados. But, as in the amateur ranks, Adams intends to be a trailblazer, paving the way for others to follow in her stead.
She was asked whether there were any professional women’s fighters she particularly admired, but replied: “No, just Ali. Because of his character inside and outside the ring. His poems, his rhymes, his foot speed and his hand speed.”
In the amateurs she fought wearing a head guard over four two-minute rounds, while in the pros there will be no similar protection and championship bouts stretch to 10 two-minute rounds.
Some sensations, however, will be all too familiar. “I’ll definitely have nerves in my first fight,” she said smiling. “And I’d be worried if I didn’t, because I’d be a bit too overconfident. But the pro ranks are made for me.”