EBBW Vale boxer Ashley Brace is aiming to put the past behind her and start a new chapter as she prepares for her first professional bout tomorrow night.

The Torfaen Warriors fighter has turned pro in an attempt to get over the pain of missing out on competing at last year’s Commonwealth Games.

Brace was selected to fight for Wales at Glasgow 2014 but at the last minute she was barred from competing by the International Boxing Association (AIBA).

They deemed that the 24-year-old had previously fought as a professional kickboxer and the Welsh Amateur Boxing Association (WABA) accepted the ruling.

Brace always denied that she had been a pro kickboxer and organisers of the kickboxing tournaments she competed in have also since confirmed she did so on an amateur basis.

New rules stated that any boxer returning from another individual contact sport should apply to an international committee to become eligible to box again.

Brace said she was never told about the paperwork, which had to be submitted by WABA, and felt the association let her down.

Brace said: "I would never go back to Team Wales after this, because if you don't have confidence in the people who are supposed to be fighting your corner, at the end of day, what's the point?"

WABA chairman David Francis said the organisation did all it could to help and that the whole incident was "regrettable".

She makes her pro boxing debut at the Newport Centre tomorrow night in a four-round bantamweight contest against Bulgarian Bojana Libiszewska.

Also making his professional debut on the Sanigar Events show is former world amateur silver medallist Andrew Selby.

St Joseph’s fighters Robbie Turley and Danni Griffiths are on the bill too, while Cwmbran’s Jamie Arthur makes his comeback to the ring after three years away.

But the most intriguing story of the night belongs to Brace and Torfaen Warriors trainer Simon Weaver wishes his protégée well.

“I still feel that Ashley could have gone to the Olympics in Rio next year but she has no trust in WABA so she didn’t want to go back,” he said.

“We proved that she never kickboxed as a pro but she had no apology and she sees becoming a pro as her best option now.

“I hope she goes on to become a world champion.”

Weaver also has high hopes for two other talented amateurs at the Warriors.

Lewis Howells, the current Welsh junior champion at 69kg, won gold at the Pirkka Cup in Finland last year and has just made the quarter-finals of the Ahmet Comet Cup in Turkey.

The 18-year-old from Newport is now set to join the Team GB squad in preparation for the 2020 Olympics.

And 22-year-old Chloe Thomas, the Welsh senior champion at 57kg, is another rising star who is off to compete in Sweden next month.

The Warriors are currently looking for sponsors to help fund foreign trips for their boxers to compete against the best.