‘It’s Time’ – Gabriel Dossen Ready to Make Pro Mark
Gabriel Dossen’s pro dream couldn’t wait any longer.
The Galway boxer was earmarked as a future Olympian since his underage days and held genuine hopes of reaching the biggest stage of amateur sport.
Unfortunately injury denied the European Championship gold medal winner a chance to qualify for Tokyo, and with his natural weight moved from the Paris Olympics qualifying was always going to be hard.
The Olympic Galway graduate did explore qualifying up the scales but found Kelynn Cassidy, a natural light heavyweight in his way.
Such is the talent of ‘The Assasain’ that he would have been fancied for LA 2028. However, he now believes it’s time to follow a long-held pro dream.
“As a kid yeah my plan was always to go to the Olympics. I wanted to go as early as possible and turn pro straight away,” he tells Irish-boxing.com.
“But I got injured and ended up just missing my chance to even try to compete for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. I’ve already waited an extra cycle. I’m 25 years old now I’m not waiting around for another cycle especially with there being a chance boxing could get kicked out. I’ve had a bit of bad luck with the Olympics. Injury then the fact my weight got taken out. So it’s time to go pro.”
It’s not that pro boxing is a consolation prize. The Connacht operator, who is eyeing a March debut, has always wanted to box without the vest and has big professional dreams.
“It was always a dream to go pro. Since I was a kid I always wanted to go pro,” he adds.
Dossen has signed a two-year deal with Pro Box and expects to fight five times across his maiden pro year but doesn’t want to look past his debut just yet.
“I’m looking straight towards a solid camp and that’s the job at hand.
“I’ve got to go in there and get the ring rust off because even though I’m back training and back sparring, a year out of the ring is a very long time. I was out of the ring over a year. I didn’t spar or anything for a full year. So, you know, it’s taken time to come back and find my distance and find my rhythm and stuff.”
