Olympic star Imane Khelif announces surprise move to professional boxing amidst raging gender controversy debate: "I have many offers"

Olympic boxing star Imane Khelif has announced she is set to turn professional, following a summer full of success and controversy.

Khelif picked up the Olympic gold medal in the women's 66kg boxing event at the Paris Olympics, but it wasn't without its critics. The 25-year-old found herself at the heart of a major dispute throughout the games, with many calling into question her gender.

The controversy stems from Khelif's disqualification by the International Boxing Association (IBA) from the World Championships last year. Despite being born female and identifying as female, the Algerian reportedly failed a gender eligibility test conducted by the IBA.

Khelif was then allowed to compete at the Games after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) removed the IBA as the governing body. The legitimacy of the gender eligibility tests has also since come into question, with claims some of the results were incorrect.

Now, months on from her Olympic success, Imane Khelif announced this week she is turning professional at a press conference. Although Khelif didn't confirm the date for her debut, she revealed receiving offers from multiple promotions:

“I will soon enter the world of professional boxing, I have many offers. Currently, I have not made up my mind about where I will enter professional boxing." [H/t Boxing Social]

talkSPORT boxing editor Michael Benson also confirmed the news on X, tweeting:

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Joe Rogan refused to accept Imane Khelif's gender

Imane Khelif faced a summer of triumph and debate as she picked up an Olympic gold medal in boxing. With many people having their say on the gender controversy surrounding her, one person who was perhaps more vocal than most was Joe Rogan.

Before Khelif had her hand raised and a gold medal placed around her neck, Rogan discussed the situation during episode #161 of the JRE MMA Show and said:

"They failed gender eligibility tests? That means they're transgender. The boxer's [Imane Khelif] chromosome came back as XY, so that's a male. That's a man... I know it sounds horrible to misgender someone and all that stuff, all that's great until you wanna fight women or even compete against women. Cut the sh*t."

Check out Joe Rogan's comments here (11:20):