Russian Egor Mekhontsev, who captured the light heavyweight gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London, has signed with Top Rank in anticipation of a Dec. 7 debut on the undercard of Guillermo Rigondeaux vs. Joseph Agbeko at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

"Egor's first fight will be on our Dec. 7 HBO event in New Jersey," said Top Rank CEO Bob Arum, in a prepared statement. "We expect a great, glorious future for Egor, an Olympic gold medalist who is beginning his professional career."  

Trained by his father, Leonid Mekhontsev, Egor Mekhontsev is managed by Vadim Kornilov, who handles WBO  junior welterweight Ruslan Provodnikov.

Rigondeaux (12-0, 8 knockouts) is coming off an HBO-televised unanimous decision over Nonito Donaire in April, and Agbeko (29-4, 22 KOs) is coming off a unanimous decision over Luis Melendez in March that helped him to rebound from consecutive losses as a bantamweight to Abner Mares.

Photo by Armando Bareno, Top Rank

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]