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Tom Welland names Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao, a world champion in eight different weight classes, as his favorite fighter
When is a professional boxer not a professional boxer?
If they are selected to fight in the Olympics.
Tom Welland will contest his third professional competition against Esteban Troetsch in Telford on Friday – but he hopes his 2024 schedule will also include representing the Philippines at the Paris Olympics.
Welland is eligible for selection because his mother is from the Philippines and since the 2016 Rio Olympics, rules have allowed professionals to take part – even though the Olympic boxing tournament is an amateur competition.
“I have a clause in my contract that I can come back as an amateur and fight in the Olympics,” the 19-year-old told ` Essex.
“I was there about eight months ago and trained with them. I still talk to them frequently, so I can still do that when the draft comes, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Featherweight Welland stopped Francisco Rodriguez in his professional debut last October and then defeated Yuri Zanoli in Sunderland two months later – a fight he described as “a brutal bloodbath, not for the faint of heart”.
Still, he is confident he can make the transition back to faster amateur boxing without too much difficulty.
“Professional boxing is much slower and much more technical. Amateur boxing is three three-minute rounds, it’s an absolute sprint,” said Welland, from Wickford in Essex.
“The preparation is different. For example, I would change my running, I would have to do more short sprint work.”
“My sparring would change – I would no longer do eight or ten rounds, but four or six rounds at a faster pace.
“It’s different, but the transition isn’t too big if you have the right pedigree.”
Welland took an unusual path to boxing – playing football for Cambridge United's youth academy at the age of 13, when he first entered the ring at a gym for physical training.
He said: “I thought, 'This is absolutely perfect, I'm going to have tears three times a week and it's going to make me strong'.”
“In my first season I reached the semi-finals of the national championship and thought: 'I'm not playing football anymore'. From then on I just boxed.”
And it would be a thrill to represent the country in the French capital in July and August – if you had the chance to stake your claim.
He added: “Of course you have to go to an Olympic qualifying event. Team GB has its final qualification in Italy at the end of March. Our final qualifier will be in Bangkok, Thailand in May or June.”
“Maybe in the next month, six weeks, I’ll know what I’m doing. I have professional fights planned just in case, a backup plan in case I don't get called up, I have that.” I haven't closed every door.
Tom Welland spoke to Rob Jelly from ` Essex
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