Canadian Olympian Wyatt Sanford will make his long anticipated debut against Gonzalo Manriquez at the Fredericton Coliseum in New Brunswick, on May 17.

Sanford had been due to make his professional bow in Montreal on April 10, only for his opponent to pull out for health reasons ahead of the weigh in.

After a little over a months delay the 26-year-old southpaw, who claimed his countries first boxing medal since 1996, won a slew of national titles in various age groups, he collected bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth games, gold at the 2023 Pan-Am games, represented his Canada at the 2019 World Championships and the 2020 (delayed to 2021) and 2024 Olympics, where he claimed bronze, will make the transition.

"I can't wait to get back in the ring, especially with the chance to do it so close to home," Sanford said in a press release. "I already feel ready to fight, and more importantly, to deliver a great performance."

Eye of The Tiger President, Camille Estephan, is happy to finally get his fighter off and running.

"Of course, we would have liked for his debut to take place on one of our shows, and we plan to have him fight on all our upcoming events," said Estephan. "But in the meantime, it was a priority for us to keep Wyatt active by finding him a fight as quickly as possible."

Manriquez (5-5-1) is a durable Argentine boxer, who has only been stopped once and took junior lightweight fringe contender Elnur Samedov the full eight-rounds though lost a shutout decision.