NEW Matchroom signing Pat Brown may be joining the cruiserweight ranks but he knows a thing or two about a couple of today’s heavyweight contenders.

The 25-year-old has turned over to a great deal of noise from Eddie Hearn having won the race to sign the popular Mancunian who competed at the 2024 Olympic Games.

Brown will make his debut early next year where life as a pro begins in the 200lbs division. In time, his sizeable frame will eventually move to heavyweight, where the current scene is thriving. Two names talked about as future heavyweight champions are Kent’s Moses Itauma, 10-0 (8 KOs), and Congo’s Scottish-based Martin Bakole, 21-1 (16 KOs).

At an event in Manchester yesterday, hosted by Matchroom, Brown was on hand to meet the media and spoke to Boxing News about moving to the professional code and two challenging spars against Itauma and Bakole.

“When I was on my GB assessment Rob [McCracken] said ‘I’m bringing a kid (Itauma) in for you to spar – he’s 18.’ I’m thinking an 18 year old getting in the ring with me, this is a walk in the park,” Brown recalled.

“I remember getting in with him, he’s come out southpaw like b-bang and I’m thinking God this kid’s good. We ended up having a proper gruelling round of sparring. It was brilliant. Going back and forth. I got the GB assessment but they were impressed and then afterwards I’ve been told he’s the next future prospect.

“Then when he was training for the European Youths and I was training for the National title we did some more rounds together because we both benefit each other. He’s a top talent.”

Brown’s amateur trainer Nigel Travis – who will work alongside Jamie Moore to train Brown in the pros – then took him to Scotland one Christmas Eve to spar Bakole. A spar that Brown says has been his toughest so far.

“He was training for the French kid (Tony Yoka) who went to the Olympics. He wanted me to dance around the ring a little bit, be hard to hit.

“I remember getting in. I was a little bit younger then to be fair, I wasn’t as big as I am now. I just thought this man’s presence in the ring… I’ve never been in the ring where I thought there’s nowhere to go. The way he was just flicking the shots out. He’s a very big, strong man and it was a great experience.”