Nova Scotia Olympic boxer Wyatt Sanford announces he's going pro

Nova Scotia Olympic boxer Wyatt Sanford has announced he's turning pro after landing on the podium in Paris last summer. 

Sanford, who is from Kennetcook, N.S., has joined Quebec-based promotional company Eye of the Tiger Management.

"I like how they look after their athletes," Sanford, 26, said. "Boxing is a kind of a rough business where people aren't always looking out for everyone's best interest."

'The Kennetcook Kid' won bronze in the 63.5-kilogram weight class at the Olympics last summer to become the first Canadian boxer to win a medal at the Olympics since Halifax-based David Defiagbon took silver in 1996.

Sanford said he began to seriously consider making the jump to the pros after Paris. 

"We are beyond proud to have signed the first Canadian Olympic boxing medallist in over 28 years," Marc Ramsay, director of recruitment for Eye of the Tiger, said in a news release.

"Not only is Wyatt Sanford a recruit with immense potential, but he is also a local boxer who developed entirely within Canada's amateur boxing system."

Hopes for a hometown fight

Amateur boxers typically participate in tournaments as part of national or international events like the Olympics or Pan Am Games. Professional boxers train for single fights to win money. 

"When we were training for the Olympic Games, we're not training for one person, we're training to be the best that we can be," Sanford said.  

"Where in the pros, we know who we're fighting and we can get to be the best we can be while focusing on a straight game plan and strategy not just for one or two days before, but we can focus on it for weeks before," he said. 

Sanford said he believes he'll continue to fight at the super lightweight class but could drop down to lightweight.

He has no pro fights on his schedule yet, but said he hopes to share some news soon. He said he would love to fight in Nova Scotia, though. 

"I'm not 100% sure what's coming up soon. I believe we'll be back in the ring," he said. 

"But I'm hoping that we can get some fights in Halifax as well and get to that Nova Scotia crowd and that pride out in the arenas and cheering," Sanford said.