By Rick Reeno
krikya360.com has been advised that 2016 Olympic gold medal winner Tony Yoka (5-0, 4 KOs) has signed a managerial agreement with James Prince.
Prince is best known as the manager of former two division world champion Andre Ward and the current co-manager of top contender and Olympic silver medal winner Shakur Stevenson. At one point Prince also managed Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Yoka is expected to return to the ring on a date in July, in France.
Yoka won Olympic gold in the super heavyweight division with a victory over Joe Joyce. He became the first boxer in the history of France to win a gold medal at super heavyweight. Before the gold medal bout with Joyce, Yoka had beaten Hussein Ishaish in the quarter-final, and Filip Hrgovic in the semi-final
Yoka won the gold at the 2015 AIBA World Boxing Championships. And he won a gold medal with a win over Joseph Parker in the super heavyweight division at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore.
In 2017 Yoka made a decision to turn pro, and hired veteran trainer Virgil Hunter. He stopped Travis Clark in his debut fight at Le Palais des Sports in Paris, on June 2017.
Yoka also signed a promotional agreement with Richard Schaefer of Ringstar Sports.
"It’s an honor and a privilege to be his manager. Now you have been put on notice that the future heavyweight champion is coming for all belts," Prince stated to krikya360.com.
In July 2018, the French Anti-Doping Agency banned him for one year because of missing three drug tests between July 2016 and July 2017. His appeal against the ruling was rejected by the French Council of State in August 2018.
Yoka's last fight took place in June of 2018, when he stopped Dave Allen in the tenth round.