\n After a stellar amateur career that produced three national titles and multi England international bouts, Orford 20-year-old Luke Turner has joined the paid ranks with huge ambitions.\n<\/p>\n
\n The former Birchwood Community High School student is in training for his first pro fight and said: \u201cI\u2019m buzzing and can\u2019t wait to get started.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Middleweight Turner, who first started training in the gym at six-years-old had his first fight age 10 with Warrington\u2019s Phoenix Fire ABC, is determined to make a big name for himself.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019ve wanted to do this since I started boxing when I was younger. The dream was always to be a pro boxer,\u201d said Turner, who completed the amateur chapter with the Everton Red Triangle club, for whom he became senior national champion last November.\n<\/p>\n
\n Luke Turner receives his National Association of Boys Clubs (NABC) middleweight title medal from former WBC light-heavyweight champion John Conteh (Image: Contributed)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cFor me, the amateurs is almost like your apprenticeship to go and get the accolades to then sign with a big promoter like Frank Warren.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cTo be honest, there was no plan B. I\u2019ve been 100 per cent in, boxing had to work out.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI want to be world champion and go down as a big name in the sport.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cYou can\u2019t set your sights low. It\u2019s about your mindset, if you believe you can achieve it you can do it.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cSome people turn pro and they\u2019re like \u2018I\u2019d be happy with an English, I\u2019d be happy with a couple of area titles\u2019 but I want to go all the way.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIn my opinion, I wouldn\u2019t see the point in doing it if I didn\u2019t think I was capable of going all the way.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt might sound a bit cocky to some people, but I just went to set the bar high.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Turner, who is managed by Paul Stevenson \u2013 who also coaches him alongside fellow Liverpudlian Anthony Humphries – is expecting confirmed news soon of his first fight, likely to be in September or October.\n<\/p>\n
\n After nine years at Phoenix Fire, with whom he won two junior titles and gained England honours, he joined Everton Red Triangle and won the senior National Association of Boys Clubs (NABC) middleweight title in Essex eight months ago.\n<\/p>\n
\n When Luke Turner won the Merseyside and Cheshire title in 2018 (Image: Contributed)
Luke Turner, crowned junior national champion for the second time in 2022 (Image: Contributed)\n<\/p>\n
\n That made the Carrington Park youngster the UK\u2019s number-one-ranked amateur boxer.\n<\/p>\n
\n Turner, who fought for England in the 2022 European Youth Championships, explained why he chose to join the Frank Warren stable.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI sat down with Paul and Ant and we just spoke about who\u2019d be the best one for me to go with,\u201d said Turner, whose dad Glynn and four uncles boxed as amateurs.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe decided Frank Warren\u2019s the best promoter for me to go with.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI like how they build fighters, he seems loyal to his fighters and I like what he\u2019s done with other lads in the gym.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Luke Turner with coaches Paul Stevenson, left, and Anthony Humphries (Image: Contributed)\n<\/p>\n
\n He has been pleased with the reaction of family and friends to his big move into professional sport.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cEveryone\u2019s made up. I\u2019ve had loads of support off everyone,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cHopefully I can get loads of support in my pro fights, get everyone there.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIn the Championships I had a decent crowd, it was good.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Turner is on the lookout for sponsors to help him on his boxing journey.\n<\/p>\n
\n He says there will be opportunities for exposure on television, in interviews and on kit.\n<\/p>\n
\n Contact him on Instagram at luke_.turner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a stellar amateur career that produced three national titles and multi England international bouts, Orford 20-year-old Luke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-16296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}