Bulgaria's Boxing Olympic Star Signs Professional Contract

Late Sunday night, Tervel Pulev beat 13:10 Jara Yamil Peralta from Argentina in the quarter-finals of the 91 kg category. File photo

Boxer Tervel Pulev, who won the first medal for Bulgaria from the London Olympics, has signed a five-year professional contract with the International Boxing Association for amateurs.

AIBA will launch APB in autumn 2013, a fully professional competition that will still allow boxers to compete in the Olympic Games.

Pulev said: "It is an honour for me to have been selected as one of the inaugural boxers of this revolutionary project and I just can't wait to be part of it. I am excited because I know that I will always fight against the best boxers in my category and not some random guy. I know that if one day I become APB World Champion, it will be because I am the true number one."

Late Sunday night, Tervel Pulev beat 13:10 Jara Yamil Peralta from Argentina in the quarter-finals of the 91 kg category.

By qualifying to the semi-final, the Bulgarian boxer has won his first ever Olympic medal. It is yet to become clear whether that will be a gold, silver, or bronze one.

At the semi-final, Pulev will face Aleksandr Usik from Ukraine. The match is scheduled for 3:30 pm GMT / 5:30 EET on Friday.

Tervel is a two-time European Championships silver medalist with great pedigree. The hard man with the thunderous left hook comes from a real boxing family, his father Venko having been a champion boxer and his brother Kubrat a double European Super Heavyweight Champion.

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