James DeGale, Great Britain's Olympic boxing champion, has turned professional and signed up with promoter Frank Warren. Middleweight DeGale, 22, won gold in Beijing in August, with 16-14 victory in a bad-tempered final against Cuban Emilio Correa, but by signing professional forms will become ineligible to compete at London 2012.

DeGale, who revealed he would be paid "something not far off" £2million over two years, admitted he had thought long and hard about remaining amateur until the London Olympics but the prospect of securing his financial future persuaded him to turn professional.

"When I got back from the Olympics there was a bit telling me to stay for 2012," DeGale said. "I've got a good relationship with (coach) Terry Edwards and everything was going right.

"After thinking about it and calming down you have to think about yourself and your family and I could secure the rest of my life money-wise. I've done the pinnacle of every amateur boxer's career, winning the Olympic gold medal."

Warren has also signed welterweight Billy Joe Saunders, 19, who reached the second round in his division in Beijing, and lightweight Frankie Gavin.

Gavin, the reigning world amateur champion, was also considered a strong Olympic medal prospect but failed to appear in Beijing after being unable to drop enough weight.

The trio will make their professional debuts in 2009 and Warren believes all three can go all the way to the top. "I'm delighted to have signed James, Frankie and Billy Joe, and I'm very excited about working with them in the future," he said. "I think they will all become world champions, and after their success as amateurs, the public is really going to get behind them and will want to watch their progress through the ranks."

DeGale has pledged to learn from the experiences of Audley Harrison, the former Olympic champion, and 2004 silver medallist Amir Khan who have had mixed results as professionals.

"I'm going to keep my feet on the ground, I'm not going to get too big for my boots, I've got proper people round me," he said. "Just train hard and you'll fight easy."

He added: "I'm just excited and looking forward to it. Ever since I was 10 watching the Prince Naseem videos and watching him fight all I've wanted to do was fight as a pro."