When to turn professional is usually the most pressing question any top amateur boxer will face. It is a dilemma that the entire Great Britain team from the Beijing Olympics is mulling over and one that Don Broadhurst faced two years ago.

Broadhurst won the flyweight gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006, one of England's five gold-medal winners, and was the first to turn professional. Tonight, at Aston Events Centre, Birmingham, Broadhurst attempts to become Commonwealth champion as a professional, too, when he faces Isaac Quaye, of Ghana, for the super-flyweight belt. He had faced the dilemma of turning professional or trying to qualify for Beijing, but the paid code was where his ambition had always been.

“I always knew I wanted to be a pro,” Broadhurst, 24, said. “I was thinking about turning over as a teenager, but I'm glad I stayed as long as I did, as the last two years I boxed in a lot of international tournaments and the Commonwealth Games was a wonderful occasion.”

However, Broadhurst soon discovered that the paid code had its down sides. As an amateur, he was used to boxing 15 times a year, but as a professional he has boxed only eight times in more than two years. This year he had one bout scrapped when his opponent failed to get on a plane and he was due to be on two shows that were cancelled.

Watching some of his former team-mates at the Beijing Games proved tough. “I think if I had gone to the Olympics, I could have won a medal,” Broadhurst said. “A guy I had beaten [Vincenzo Picardi, of Italy] won a bronze and I think I could have done at least that.

“But now this title chance has come up and it's a great opportunity. I don't know much about the guy, but Ghana have had a lot of great champions, guys like Azumah Nelson and Ike Quartey, so I am expecting him to be tough.”

Joe Murray will be the only one of the eight boxers who qualified for the Olympics competing at the European Senior Championships, the biggest amateur tournament held in Britain since the 1948 Olympics, which open in Liverpool next Thursday.

Murray appeared to be the victim of some home-town judging when he lost his opening bantamweight bout in Beijing to Gu Yu, of China, but he steps up to featherweight for this tournament and is hopeful of adding to the bronze medal he won at last year's world championships.

“The aim is to win a medal, hopefully the gold,” the 21-year-old Mancunian said. “It was my dream to go to the Olympics and I put a lot of hard work in. It was heart-breaking the way it happened.

“When I came back it took a lot of time to get over, but I decided to just get back into training and look forward to the next tournament. I am the only British boxer to have boxed in the world championships, Olympics and Europeans inside 12 months and this is a great chance to box in a big championships in North West England.”

Of the rest of his Olympic colleagues, James DeGale, Tony Jeffries and David Price, the medal-winners, along with Bradley Saunders, have been given a break from competition, while Khalid Yafai, the flyweight, is injured. Rumours persist that Billy Joe Saunders and Frankie Gavin, the world lightweight champion who failed to make the weight for Beijing, are rumoured to be mulling over professional deals.

Amir Khan will face Oisin Fagan in his comeback bout at ExCeL, in London's Docklands, on December 6. Fagan, 34, is from Dublin, but boxed for most of his career in the United States, winning 22 of his 27 bouts. Last year, he lost on a narrow split points decision to Paul Spadafora, the former IBF lightweight champion.

It will be Khan's first bout since he was kncoked out in 54 seconds by Breidis Prescott in September.

England team for European Senior Championships, Liverpool November 6-15: 48kg: Darran Langley, 51kg: Adam Whitfield, 54kg: Luke Campbell, 57kg: Joe Murray, 60kg: Tom Stalker, 64kg: Craig Dixon, 69kg: Stewart Bailey, 75kg: Karl Kirkham, 81kg: Obed Mbwakongo, 91kg: Danny Price, 91+kg: Damien Campbell.

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