Lightweight contender Richard Commey of Ghana has signed a promotional contract with Lou DiBella, it was announced Tuesday morning.

Commey signed the contract on Saturday while he attended the Mikey Garcia-Adrien Broner fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

“It’s great to be back in the United States and I can’t wait to show everyone that I can be a world champion,” said Commey. “I want to thank Lou DiBella and DiBella Entertainment for showing faith and signing me. I also want to thank my manager Michael Amoo-Bediako for all the hard work he has done for me over the years and is still doing.”

DiBella has promoted fighters from Ghana in the past, having represented Ike Quartey and Joshua Clottey.

The hard-hitting Commey (25-2, 22 knockouts) suffered consecutive split decision losses late last year to Robert Easter Jr. and Denis Shafikov. The loss to Easter, whom he knocked down during the fight, was for the vacant IBF lightweight title.

“I feel that I wasn’t treated fairly in my world title fight with Robert Easter and then with Denis Shafikov in the final eliminator in Russia.

Commey is currently ranked No. 4 by the WBC and No. 6 by the IBF. THE RING Magazine has ranked Commey at No. 6.

“I think Richard Commey is one of the top lightweights in the world and I’m very excited to work with him and his management,” said Lou DiBella. “Richard’s two losses were both by split decision and, in my opinion, he won the Shafikov fight. He’ll have better sparring for his future fights. We feel that he can win a world championship and will pursue that path for him.”

In his most recent bout on March 11, Commey won a 12-round unanimous decision over Hedi Slimani in his hometown of Accra, Ghana.

Commey will ultimately move to the New York area and will be trained by Andre Rozier and Gary Stark Sr.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV.com since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper, BoxingScene.com and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing.

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