Dominic Breazeale at the London Olympics in July. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)
Dominic Breazeale, the former Northern Colorado quarterback who took to boxing as a heavyweight for Team USA at the London Olympics, on Friday made his professional debut in the ring.
Breazeale earned a first-round TKO over Curtis Tate at 1:06 in his heavyweight debut at the Fantasy Springs casino outside Palm Springs in Indio, Calif.
Breazeale started boxing in 2008, after starting two seasons at QB for UNC. He turned down an offer to play pro football for the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League.
In part because of a dearth of American heavyweights, Breazeale climb up the amateur ranks quickly to earn a spot at the London Games, where he lost in the first round.
Now a pro, Breazeale said he wants to fight often, perhaps every month, with the goal of being 10-0 by next summer.
“It still lingers with me a bit, because I wanted to do so much,” Breazeale told The Associated Press.
“I really wanted to get past that first day, get all the jitterbugs out, and go from there. It’s probably going to hurt forever, but now I want that feeling reversed.”
Cincinnati’s Rau’shee Warren and four other former American Olympians also won their debuts on Friday’s card. Warren, a bantamweight, won a unanimous decision over Luis Rivera.
Marcus Browne, Errol Spence Jr. and Terrell Gausha also won their debut bouts.
Gary Russell Jr. (21-0, 13 KOs), also a former Olympian from 2008, won his featherweight bout as the headliner, stopping Roberto Castaneda in the third round.